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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap..._.._. Copyright No. 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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*■ Profits in 
Poultry 







USEFUL AND 
ORNAMENTAL BREEDS 
AND THEIR 
PROFITABLE 
MANAGEMENT 



Profusely Illustrated 




New York 
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

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18956 



COPYRIGHT 1898 BY 
GMANGE JUUD COMYA.NY 



7lV0G0fito«?tCfciVEU. 




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PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



As denoted by the title of the book, the editors have given most 
prominence to the side of poultry keeping which returns an income. 
The ways and means by which eggs or poultry can be grown at a 
profit are discussed in great detail. So many questions are constantly 
asked about the various breeds and also concerning diseases and 
their treatment, that these topics have been quite fully considered. 
The turkey department has been made as complete as possible on 
account of the increasing interest in that branch of poultry keeping. 

Incubators, care of chicks, feeding and care for eggs, or for meat, 
building coops and houses, caponizing, marketing, warfare against 
pests, raising waterfowl and ornamental poultry, are described at 
length. The reference matter and tables are a special feature of the, 
book. The present volume is nearly one-third larger than any 
previous edition. 

Experience of breeders and poultry farmers has been drawn upon 
freely, resulting in that breadth of view which can be obtained only 
by comparison of successful methods in actual practice. Among 
those who have directly assisted in furnishing the new matter are 
James Rankin, P. II. Jacobs, T. M. Ferris, M. C. Weld, Burr 
Knapp and W. H. Rudd. The entire material has been carefully 
prepared by Mr. George B. Fiske, poultry editor American Agri 
culturist. About ioo pages and many illustrations have been added 
to the new and enlarged edition, but without any increase in the 
price of this useful book. 
(3) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Publishers' Preface 3 

CHAPTER I. 

Poultry Raising 7 

CHAPTER II. 

Convenient and Good Poultry Houses 13 

CHAPTER III. 
Special Purpose Poultry House 25 

CHAPTER IV. 
Poultry House Conveniences 3J 

CHAPTER V. 

Natural Incubation 46 

CHAPTER VI. 
Care of Chickens— Coops for them 54 

CHAPTER VII. 

Artificial Incubation 65 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Preparing for Market 80 

CHAPTER IX. 
Eggs for Market 86 

CHAPTER X. 

Caponizing— How it is done 93 

CHAPTER XL 

Poultry Keeping as a Business 98 

CHAPTER XII. 
Hints about Management 101 

(5) 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PAGE 

Some Popular Breeds 121 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Asiatic Breeds 123 

CHAPTER XV. 
European Breeds 136 

CHAPTER XVI. 
American Breeds 168 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Diseases of Poultry 178 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Parasites upon Poultry 189 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Raising Turkeys 193 

CHAPTER XX. 
Raising Geese 210 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Raising Ducks 218 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Ornamental Poultry 235 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Breeding and Cross Breeding 247 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Feeding for Growth 261 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Feeding for Eggs 273 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Turkeys on the Farm 288 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Diseases and Pests 317 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Poultry Dictionary and Calendar 335 

Index— Alphabetical 350 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



CHAPTEE I. 
POULTRY RAISING. 

No other business connected with agricultural pursuits, 
seems so attractive as poultry farming. Even those who 
fail in the business and retire from it, aver that they are 
certain they could succeed in a new trial. At the start, 
the general idea is that the business consists of throwing 
out corn to a flock of hens with one hand, and gathering 
eggs with the other. But while this may be true in some 
cases, it is very different in others. The expert poultry 
raiser may perhaps meet with no difficulty, and all may 
go on smoothly, but the novice is in trouble from the 
first ; the eggs are few, and the chicks die. One may 
easily keep ten or twelve fowls with profit, who could not 
double or treble this number successfully, because with a 
large number all the difficulties which arise, such as 
want of cleanliness, the presence of vermin, impure air, 
and risk of infection, increase in a much larger ratio than 
does the number in the flock. But if one has succeeded 
with a small flock, there is no reason why he should not 
be able to do so with several flocks, if each is kept in just 
the same manner as the original one. Afterwards the 
flocks may be enlarged, but as this is the very point on 
which most of the younger poultry raisers fail, the great- 
est caution should be observed in adding to the number 
of fowls kept in each coop or Jiouse, or yard. 
(7) 



8 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



THE BEST BREED FOR MARKET PURPOSES. 

What follows in this chapter is from E. A. Samuels 
of Massachusetts: I find it very difficult to answer 
the question : " Which breed of fowls do you recommend 
as being the best for market purposes ? " for it is almost 
impossible to lay down as a guide any rule, or name any 
particular breed, or cross, or variety which will net the 
best results in every market. A great deal depends upon 
the locality where the breeder is situated, and it also de- 
pends upon whether the breeder desires "broilers," or 
early or late " roasters." 

In the Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York mar- 
kets, as well as among the Paris and London dealers, 
chickens with white or light skin are preferred to those 
with yellow skin, and consequently the Dorkings, Black 
Spanish, Houdans, and other white skinned varieties or 
their crosses always bring the best prices, and are in thf 
quickest demand, while in the Boston and the other New 
England cities, and in Chicago, and perhaps some of the 
other large western cities, where any decided preference 
has been expressed, the yellow-skinned birds are in the 
greater demand. 

In the Boston markets and hotels a lot of bright, yel- 
low-skinned chickens will always command a better price 
than will a lot of white-skinned birds, although the two 
lots may have been fed precisely alike, and be in equally 
as good condition ; this I have proved repeatedly, so that, 
as I before stated, a great deal depends upon the intended 
market. 

Many persons believe that the color of the chicken's' 
skin is governed largely by the kind of food the birds are 
provided with; believing that yellow Indian corn will 
produce a yellow-skinned chick, while wheat or oats will 
cause the skin to be white. Although there may be some 
little reason for this belief, I think that it cannot be re- 



POULTKY KAISIItfG. 9 

garded as of much importance, for a lot of chickens of 
different varieties, if fed and reared in the same pen, will 
exhibit all shades of color in the skin from yellow to 
white. It seems natural to some breeds to secrete a fat 
that is yellow, while other breeds secrete a fat that has 
but little tint. 

A great deal has been written in regard to the merits 
of different breeds of fowls, and people are, generally, 
pretty well acquainted with the characteristics of each, 
so that it would seem almost an act of supererogation 
here for me to dwell upon this topic, did not my experi- 
ence in a measure differ from that of many writers. 
From extended and careful observation, I have arrived at 
the following conclusions : 

If a breeder intends to raise chickens for the Philadel- 
phia and other first-named series of markets, a cross of 
Plymouth Rock cock, one year old, on a two-year-old 
Light Brahma hen, produces the most desirable early 
"roasters ;" a pure-blood Plymouth Rock mating gives 
the best "broilers" and late "roasters." In fact for my 
own table I prefer Plymouth Rock chickens, either as 
broilers or roasters, to all others. Of course, at present, 
Langshans and Wyandottes are too valuable to be taken 
into account as table fowls. 

Next to the above matings, for the markets named, a 
cross between a yearling Black-breasted Game and White 
or Buff Cochin, makes desirable broilers, but not so quick 
selling as those first named. 

In my experience, the principal objection to Plymouth 
Rocks and their crosses lies in their dark pin-feathers, 
which abound in the skin of broilers, and are very diffi- 
cult to be removed, and when they are taken out thor- 
oughly the skin is often badly broken and marred by the 
picker. 

For the Boston and other markets named in the sec- 
ond list, I find that for broilers a cross between a year- 



10 PKOFITS 1ST POULTRY. 

ling White Leghorn cock, on a two-year-old Light 
Brahma hen, is by all odds most desirable. The chicks 
mature very rapidly ; they are plump and full-breasted 
at nine to twelve weeks old ; they have a bright, yellow 
skin, and no dark pin- feathers. 

I prefer a two-year-old hen to breed from for the reason 
that her chickens are larger and more vigorous than are 
those of a yearling, and they mature much more quickly. 

Next in value for broilers in these markets to this cross, 
in the succession they are named, are the pure-blood Light 
Brahma, Plymouth Eock, White or Buff Jochin, and 
cross of Brown Leghorn on Partridge Cochin, all of the age 
of from ten to twelve weeks old if hatched in January or 
February, or nine to eleven weeks old if hatched in 
March or April, they growing a little more rapidly then 
than the earlier hatched birds. For early roasters, for 
these markets, I prefer a cross of Plymouth Rock year- 
ling cock on Light Brahma hen, the latter furnishing 
the large frame-work on which the blood of the former 
builds a full-breasted, quick-maturing fine-meated bird. 
Light Brahma cockerels, nine to twelve months old, make 
good and marketable roasters, but they are not so profit- 
able to raise as the cross I have named. 

MANAGEMENT AND FEED. 

As much depends on the management of the chickens, 
however, as on the characteristics of the different breeds. 
A good poultryman may, with poor stock, succeed better 
than would a bad manager with the best of stock. 

It is of great importance, in raising chickens, that they 
should be well supplied with a variety of food. " Short 
commons " does not pay in chicken raising. The com- 
mon custom is to keep a dish of " Indian meal dough " 
mixed up, and three times a day a lot is thrown down to 
the chickens. If they eat it, well and good ; if not, and 
the chances are they will not, having become tired of one 



POULTRY RAISING. 11 

single article of diet set before them day after day, it 
stands and sours. If a quantity is thus found uneaten, 
the next meal is likely to be a light one, and the chickens, 
driven by hunger, finally devour the sour stuff. The re- 
sult is cholera or some other fatal disease sets in and their 
owner wonders why his chickens are dying off. In my 
own practice I find that small quantities of varied food, 
if given to the chickens often, produce vastly better re- 
sults than any other method of feeding. 

On no account, do I permit young chickens to be fed 
with Indian meal dough. For the first morning meal I 
give all my young stock boiled potatoes mashed up fine 
and mixed with an equal quantity of Indian meal and 
shorts. I find nothing so good and acceptable as this 
food, and I use only small unmarketable potatoes ; they 
prove more profitable than anything else I can employ. 

I have had many hundreds of chickens at one time in 
my houses, varying in size from those but a few days old 
to others large enough for the table, and positively no 
other article of " soft food " was ever given to them ; and 
I venture to say a more healthy and thrifty lot of chick- 
ens could not be found. When, in days gone by, I used 
to feed to the young stock the traditional " dough," I 
always counted on losing a large percentage, and the 
numbers that died from cholera, diarrhoea and kindred 
diseases, were great. Now a sick chicken is a rarity in 
my yards. After the potato mash is disposed of I give 
my chickens all the fine cracked corn they will eat up 
clean. Of course large chickens, those which are ten or 
twelve weeks old, can be fed with corn coarser cracked, 
but the young birds want it very fine. In about two hours 
after the cracked corn is eaten, I give all the wheat 
screenings the chicken will eat, and in another two hours, 
some oats. For supper they have all the cracked corn 
and wheat they can eat. It is of the utmost importance 
that the young birds should, at the close of the day, have 



12 PROFITS. IK POULTRY. 

full crops ; for the nights in the winter and early spring 
are long, and as soon as the chickens have digested ail 
their food they stop growing for the time being. I always 
make it a point to feed them as late in the afternoon as 
they can see, and as early in the morning. 

By the above described system of feeding, the chickens 
are constantly tempted by a variety of healthy food, and 
the result is a rapid growth and perfect immunity from 
disease. If abundance of grass is not accessible to them, 
young chickens should have fed to them at least one meal 
a day of glass and clover chopped fine with a pair of 
scissors. In winter I give my chickens cabbages, throw- 
ing in whole heads for the birds to pick at, 



CHAPTER II. 

CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES. 

A VERY CHEAP HEK HOUSE. 

Experience has proved that twenty fowls, properly- 
housed, provided with suitable food, pure water, clean 
nest boxes, plenty of dust, lime in some form, and gravel, 
will return more clear profit than fifty, kept as they gen- 
erally are upon farms. Suggest a good poultry house to 
the average farmer, and frequently there arises in his 
mind the image of an elaborate affair costing one hun- 
dred, to one hundred and fifty dollars. Not being able 
to spare that amount for such a purpose, he goes without, 
and his poultry, exposed to the inclemencies of the 




Fig. 1.— A. CHEAP HEN HOUSE. 

weather, are a dead expense fully two-thirds of the year, 
eating valuable food constantly and yielding nothing in 
return. A poultry house large enough to properly shelter 
twenty fowls can be erected at a very small cost. We give 
an engraving of one, all the materials of which, with the 
exception of the sash, cost three dollars and eighty-five 
cents. The sash was taken from a hot-bed that is used 
for sprouting sweet potatoes late in the spring. When 
the sash is required for the hot-bed the season is mild and 
the opening is covered with boards. This structure is 
nine feet wide, twelve feet long, and five feet high in the 
(1.3) 



14 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

center. The short side of the roof is two feet long, and 
the long side, which fronts south and comes to within 
eighteen inches of the ground, is seven feet. At the fur- 
ther end the roof boards extend over an opening made for 
the fowls to pass in and oat. The perches are one foot 
above the floor and extend along the north side of. the 
interior. The bottom board on that side is hung with 
hinges so it can be raised, and the droppings under the 
perehes scraped out. The nest boxes are ranged along the 
low side, the dust box is placed in the sunniest spot, and 
the feed and water troughs near the door. One pane 
of glass in the sash is loose so that it may be moved 
down for ventilation. The floor should be covered with 
sand when obtainable, if not, with straw, chaff, or other 
similar material that can be raked out when soiled. The 
whole interior should be given a coat of fresh lime white- 
wash at least four times a year, and the perches swabbed 
with kerosene. Hens kept in this house lay steadily all 
winter. The poultry house here described is easily cleaned, 
and answers the purpose nearly as well as one costing 
twenty times as much. 



A WARM FOWL HOUSE. 

Eggs in winter are what we all want. To secure them 
we must have for our hens a warm, snug house, easily 
kept clean, with provision for dusting, feed, water and 
exercise. To consider these requirements in the order 
named, we have first warmth as an important desidera- 
tum. Artificial heat has rarely been found profitable, 
hence we will not consider it. The fowls must depend 
for their warmth upon the sun, the natural heat of the 
earth, and the temperature of their own bodies. If we 
notice a flock of chickens, we shall see that they warm 



CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES. 



15 



themselves by huddling together, by crowding on their 
roosts, by sitting flat upon the ground, and by standing 
or sitting in the sun. We mast therefore employ all 
these ways to secure that warmth, without which we 
shall have few eggs, with no less or even greater expense 
for food. 

Fowls suffer most from cold at night. In fact, nights 
are almost always colder than the days, and it is fortu- 
nate that by night when it is cold, we have less wind. 
A poultry house to be warm, must be close and tightly 
made, yet with good ventilation, for if warm and ill-ven- 
tilated, the birds may be suffocated. This has not un- 




Figs. 2 and 3.— sections of boosting room. 

frequently occurred. By the accompanying section and 
plans (figs. 3 and 4), we secure warmth from every 
source. Too much sunlight is often disadvantageous, 
hence the low roof without windows. The windows (w), 
admit sunlight upon the floor and dust box. The house 
is twelve feet square, divided by a partition of boards. 
This leaves the two apartments each six feet wide. It is 
intended for less than twenty to thirty adult fowls. The 
perches (r), are five feet long each, so that thirty fowls 
will be pretty well crowded upon them. The full hight 
of the house is nine feet, in order to give the roof a good 



16 PKOFITS IN POULTEY. 

pitch, but within a ceiling is placed at the hight five and 
a half to six feet. This may be of slats, or plastering 
lath, placed the width of a lath apart, and in the winter 
the space above may be filled loosely with straw. Thus, 
with ventilating doors above, there can be no direct draft 
upon the fowls. In such a room there will always be a 
circulation of air. The air warmed by the bodily heat 
and the breadth of the fowls, rises into the upper part of 
the room. There is a constant current of cool air flowing 
down against every window, and this causes a circulation 
— up through the roosts, down by the window. After a 
while the air may become charged with carbonic acid gas 
from the breath of the fowls. This is heavier than the 
air, hence would, after being chilled by the window, not 
be likely to rise, but would in part flow off into the other 
compartment, through the passage for the fowls near the 
window. The closeness of the quarters for the number 
of fowls stated, will secure a high temperature at night, 
provided the walls and roof are reasonably tight, without 
danger. Perhaps the best way to secuie a warm roof is 
the following: lay first a roof of hemlock boards, laid 
with the slope ; upon these, shingling laths, and shingles. 
This secures an air space an inch thick under the shingles, 
in addition to the board roof. So constructed, no rafters 
would be needed, but one scantling, set edgeways and 
supported by posts in the middle of each side, and in the 
partition, to make the roof stiff. 

The roosting-room is supplied with a large dust-box, 
always well filled, and two ranges of nest boxes, with 
sloping tops, as shown in figure 2. The chickens can not 
stand on these tops, and being set on each side of the 
room, they are made to support the roosts, which should 
not be higher than two feet, or two and a half feet from 
the floor. The best form of roost is made by taking two 
straight grained, smooth pine sticks, two inches wide and 
r«ne inch thick, and nailing them together T-fashion. 



CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES. 



17 



If the top edges of the cap piece are rounded off by a 
plane, the result will be a stiff, strong perch, which will 
not disfigure the breast-bones of fowls, and which will 
keep their feet warm. 

This apartment should be cleaned out every morning. 
To do this the perches are taken up, cleaned off with a 
wooden knife or scraper, and set in one corner. The 
roofs of the nest boxes are cleaned off with the same im- 
plement, and after scattering a little of a mixture of road- 
dust and plaster over the floor, all is swept up and put 



w 



w 



o 
o 



a 



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w 



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Fig. 4.— PLAN OF FOWL HOUSE. 

in a barrel. Then a small layer of dust is scattered over' 
the floor under the roosts, which however are not replaced 
until evening, or say three or four o'clock, when the last 
gathering of eggs is made. 

We have considered the matter of warmth, and inci- 
dentally that of dusting, and in part of cleanliness. The 
day compartment is as light as we can conveniently make 
it. It ought to have a cement, or hard clay floor, well 
pounded down. Cement is preferable. The water foun- 
tain (w) should be cleaned and filled daily. If there is 



18 PROFITS 12* POULTRY. "~ 

danger of its freezing, the water may be thrown out as 
soon as the fowls are on the roosts, and refilled with tepid 
Water at daylight in the winter mornings. Three feed 
boxes are sufficient, one for soft feed, one for ground 
oyster shells, and one for ground bone. Grain should be 
fed upon the floor, and preferably at evening. This 
brings us to consider the last of our list of requirements, 
namely, exercise. To secure this, cover the floor with 
chopped straw to the depth of three inches, and scatter 
the grain upon this. Feed at such an hour that the 
chickens will not have time to find it all before it is dark, 
and this will be an inducement for them to get up early 
and go to scratching. Some provision of this kind is very 
important when fowls can not have much range and out- 
of-door exercise on account of snow and rain. In winter 
i, dry outside run is very important. It is best provided 
by a long, low, lean-to roof, on the south side of an east 
and west fence. The sun should, even at noon, reach all 
the ground under the shed. If such a house as we have 
indicated, be built against a hillside, somewhat sunken 
perhaps ; and earth banked up against the sides, except 
where windows come, will add greatly to its warmth. 



CONVENIENT AND CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE. 

Those who need a cheap building, and can do the 
greater part of the work themselves, will find the following 
plan excellent. The center of the building (see fig. 5), 
is 10x10 feet, and is six feet to the eaves. The wings are 
each 8x6x4 feet. Either of the three parts may be built 
first, and the others may be added from time to time. 
JSo posts are used in building it. The sills, 3x4 inches, 
and 10 feet long, and are mortised and put together in 
place ; the plates, 3x4 inches, and 10 feet long, are put 



CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES. 



19 



on the sills ; then eight boards are cut six feet long, four 
of them with the angle at the top to correspond with the 
oitch of the roof. These are nailed to the sills, and 





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"II B "I 1 ll' 














.M II II 






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II II II 


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II II ! 


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II II II 












II II II 






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Fig. 5. 



FRONT 
-GROUND PLAN OF POULTRY HOUSE. 



chose in front and back nailed to the edges of those on 
the ends. Then four sticks are cut each five feet six 
inches long, the plate is raised up, a stick put under i+ 




Fig. 6.— FRONT ELEVATION OF POULTRY HOUSE. 

on the sill, in each corner : the boards are then nailed to 
it, and the frame is raised ; boarded, and battened, and 
it is strong enough. The roosts are arranged as in figure 
5 ; the piece, C, rests on the plates, and is held in place 



20 



PEOFITS IN POTJLTEY. 



by cleats, and acts as a hinge. The pieces, D, are secured 
to it, and the roosts, B, to them. At A is a ring bolt, 
and overhead a hook. When the house is to be cleaned 
out, the roosts are raised and hooked up, and are six feet 
nigh, so there is no trouble in working under them. The 
door, E, is 6x3 -feet. In each Aving there are two rows 
of nests, each nest 18x18x12 inches, 12 in a row, 24 in each 
wing, and 48 in all ; the bottom of the lower row is two 
feet from the ground, and under it are five coops on each 
side, in each wing, twenty in all, (18x18x20 inches). 
These are closed inside with slats, and each one is inde- 




Fig. 7. — END ELEVATION. 




SECTION. 



pendent, and entered from the outside, as shown in fig- 
ures 6 and 7. The entrances to the nest- rooms are in the 
doors, as in figure 7. Figure 8 is an inside view of one 
of the wings, showing the interior arrangement of one 
side. The two windows in front, one in each wing, three 
doors, and twenty-three entrances for the fowls, will give 
sufficient ventilation, but if more is needed, small doors 
or windows, 18x18 inches, can be put above the plates, in 
the ends of the center building. The cupola is not nec- 
essary, but it allows the foul air to escape ; it costs about 
a day's work for a handy man, and is built of scraps. 
The roof need not, of necessity, be shingled. 



CHAPTER III. 

SPECIAL-PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES, 

A VERY COMPLETE POULTRY HOUSE. 

The very complete yet simple plan for a poultry house 
On the following pages was submitted by Charles H. Col- 
burn, of New Hampshire, in competition for prizes offered 
by the publishers, and received the highest award. It is 
built with the windows to the south. Fig. 9, a, is a door 
eighteen inches square for putting in coal ; b is a place 
for early chickens ; c, boxes for oyster shells and ground 
bone ; d, movable coops for hens with chickens. The 
inside doors are at e, e, e, e ; boxes for soft feed at g, g, 
and bins for grain are at h, li. A scuttle for the drop- 
pings is placed at i, in the passage-way, under which is a 
receiving box, and a track laid to the doory. This door 
is hung with T-hinges, and opened only for the passage 
of the box. A ventilating hole is left in the door. The 
nests for setting hens are at h ; lobby for the hens at I, 
and small ten by twelve-inch openings through the wall 
for hens to enter the yards, are shown at m. Other sim- 
ilar openings for hens pass from yard to yard are at n. 
A small coal stove, o, is used to cook feed and for heat- 
ing rooms in the coldest weather. Lead pipes, p, boxed 
up and packed with sawdust, run under the floor of the 
passage-way from the water tank to the end pens, where 
a faucet is attached and regulated that water will fall into 
dishes. The windows are at g, nine by twelve-inch glass ; 
each sash is arranged to raise. The roosfcs, r, are one and 
a half by three inches, and rounded on the edge. The 
platform, s, under the roosts, is three feet wide, with a 
two-inch strip on the front ; the whole may be covered 
(2D 



%% 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



with zinc if desired. There are two rows of nests, i, 
under the roosts, made with movable bottoms and sides, 
and may be taken out and cleaned from the passage-way. 
There are eight doors opening into the passage-way, that 
eggs may be gathered without going into the pens. Two 
long doors (one by seven and a half feet), hung with 
T-hinges, open upward, through which droppings can be 
easily removed. A water tank, u, holding a few gallons, 
is boxed up and packed in sawdust. There is a ventila- 




Fig. 9. — PLAN OF THE POULTRY HOUSE. 

tor in the center of the roof that can be opened or closed 
by a cord from the passage-way. A double set of drawers, 
v, for holding eggs, may be made over the grain bins. A 
lattice door, w, is built in the wall for chickens, with a 
tight door in the outside that can be fastened up or down 
as desired. Small chickens may be fed from the outside 
by sliding the window, and from inside by letting down 
a board over the coops, or by opening a small door in the 
back of the coop. Over the sink, x, is a board (eighteen 



SPECIAL-PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES. 



23 



by thirty-six inches) with hinges, to be raised up as a side 
table for holding fowls while being dressed. A cupboard 



IS 




under the sink holds the knives, lantern, etc. At one end 
of the cupboard is a box for oyster shells and ground 
bone, A pail is set at y to catch the blood when fowls 



u 



PROFITS m POULTRY. 



are killed. Over this pail, screwed into the rafter, is a 
hook with cord attached, to hang np the poultry by the 
legs, and a cord with a loop in it and a window weight, 




to be put over the fowl's neck before being struck with 
an axe. A small passage under the walk, is for fowls to 
enter the yard. 

This poultry house can be built for $165.70, and when 
lathed and plastered will cost twenty-five dollars more. 



SPECIAL PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES. 25 

It may be constructed for $130 by having the studding 
and rafters 22 inches apart, instead of 16 inches, and by 
setting it on posts and planked up two feet, in place of 
brick underpinning. The following are the estimates 
of material : 

1 M Square Edge Boards for outside $12.00 

150 ft. Matched Spruce for entry floor , . . . . 2.25 

400 ft. Pine Sheathing for partitions, platforms, and 

doors 7.20 

100 pieces If by $ Pine for open work of partitions and 

caps 50 

480 Chimney Brick 2.40 

Lime and laying brick . . . 2. 00 

400 Spruce Clap-boards, laid 4 inches to weather 7.00 

3i M Shingles 7.70 

Outside Door and Frame, 2| by 6i 2.25 

8 Windows and Frames, 9 by 13, glass 16.00 

4 Sashes over Dusting Room 8.00 

30 ft. of Capping 30 

Hardware, including zinc, n.Jls, locks, hinges, cords, etc. 10.00 

175 ft. Pine Boards for nests, boxes, etc 3.75 

1168 ft. Timber 16.25 

Labor 20.00 

Painting 10.00 

4MBrick 22.00 

Lime, Cement, and laying brick 10.00 

Iron Sink 1.25 

155 ft. Pine Finish for outside 3.10 

23 Matched and Grooved Boards over Dusting Room. . . 1.75 

Total $165. 70 



HALF UNDERGROUND FOWL HOUSE. 

The Poultry-House, Fig. 12, is intended to be four feet 
below the surface of the ground. In this case the bot- 
tom should be well drained, at least a foot in depth be- 
neath the wall, and the house must be kept well venti- 



26 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



lated, to avoid dampness, which is the most injurious 
thing possible for fowls. If perfectly dry such a house 
Would be unobjectionable. As to interior arrange- 
ments, there should be an entrance as shown at a, fig. 13, 
opening on to a plank extending the whole length of the 




Fig. 12.— EXTERIOR OF POULTRY-HOUSE. 



building, from which the fowls can reach the roosting 
poles. Beneath the poles there should be a sloping par- 
tition, upon which the droppings may collect and slide 
down to the plank-walk already mentioned. From this 
4 hey should be swept off every day, and carried away. 
To prevent the droppings from clinging to the partition, 
it should be well dusted every day with dry plaster, road 
dust, or sifted coal ashes. Beneath the plank walk let 
the partition extend to the floor, dividing the house into 
two apartments. At the front of the house a row of nest 
boxes, supported by braces, as seen at b, should be made. 
The rear partition may be devoted to hatching and rear- 



SPECIAL PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES. 



27 



ing chickens, a door at the further end of it opening into 
the front apartment. 'This would make an excellent 
poultry house for a village lot, being cheap, plain, and 
including many conveniences under one roof. The sash 
in front sloping to the south, would keep the house 




Fig. 13.— SECTION OF POULTRY HOUSE. 



warm during winter, and with proper care to feed the 
fowls well, and keep the house perfectly clean, eggs 
might reasonably be expected all the winter. 



PORTABLE POULTRY-HOUSE. 

A movable poultry-house is by no means novel, it 
having been described and used years ago. Geyelin des- 
cribed one which was used in grain fields in France to 
gather the scattered grain after harvest. This was con- 
structed something like one of those vans used in trans- 
porting animals kept in traveling menageries. It was 
20 feet long, about 7 feet wide, and the same in height. 



28 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



A set of steps was fixed at one end for the fowls to enter 
and leave, and nest-boxes and roosts were provided within. 
Several of these houses were drawn to the field, and one 
of them was furnished with a small apartment for the 
keeper who attended to the fowls. A large number of 
fowls could be accommodated in one of these houses, as 
they were intended to be cleaned daily, and the drop- 
pings scattered upon the ground around them as they 
were moved from place to place each day. 
An excellent house of this kind was designed by R. 




Fig. 14. 

Sproule of Pennsylvania, and a view of it is given in figure 
14. It is of wood, and as will be seen, is mounted upon an 
axle and a pair of wheels. By means of a pair of levers, 
raised to the position shown by i:he dotted lines, the 
house is lifted, and made to rest wholly upon the wheels, 
so that it can be moved from place to place as desired. 
Figure 15 shows the ground plan, with the boxes for 
feed, water, and gravel. These are secured to the sills 
and are kept clean by a sloping cover of small rods. The 
house is 10 feet long by 5 feet wide, and as high as may 



SPECIAL PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES. 



29 



be necessary. The nest boxes, 16 inches square and 4 
inches deep, are secured to the upper corners of the en- 
closure, a small door being provided for reaching the 
eggs. The roosting poles are so arranged that the fowls 
can easily climb from one to the other. The enclosure is 



13 3 J S 



FEED BOX 



ROOST POLES 




DOOR 



-^<.-<f^:'. .. :/<\ 




Fig. 15. 



made of oak rods and rails which are bored to receive 
the rods. Any cheaper method of construction may be 
used. 

The size of the house may be 5x10, or 4x8 feet, and 5 
feet high to the eaves. The sills are made of ljx3 inch 



30 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

stuff, laid flat down, halved together at the corners, and 
nails driven through upward into the ends of the posts 
The corner posts are 3x3 inches, the middle ones are, 
3x4 inches. Each is properly mortised to receive the 
rails of the open sections. A light cornice, or a 2J-inch 
band, is securely nailed around the top, a little above 
the eaves, leaving sufficient room for the roof boards to 
pass under between the baud and the upper rail. To 
the back side of this band is nailed the balustrade, each 
piece having its ends toe-nailed to the posts. A light 
ridge pole is attached at each end to the balustrade near 
the top, which forms a double-pitch flat roof. This is 
made of one thickness of f-iueh boards, the same as the 
enclosed sides. The upper section at the end, over the 
feed trough, is hung with hinges for a door through 
which to place feed, etc. The levers have their fulcrum 
ends resting on the axle, and are bolted on it. About 
12 inches from it, and opposite to it, and through the 
middle posts, are pivot bolts, on which the weight of the 
house hangs when the levers are pressed down. Narrow 
strips are used as braces for stiffening the frame length- 
wise, which are placed inside, also bits of hoop iron 
should be used about the corners to strengthen the joints. 
With these appliances and proper tools, any skillful 
mechanic can complete the job. Its weight is about 300 
pounds, and the house affords room for keeping from 12 
to 24 fowls through the season. The advantages of such 
a house are that the fowls are under perfect control, and 
are kept quite as healthy as when running at large. 
Every morning when the house is moved, there is pro* 
vided a clean, fresh apartment, with fresh earth and 
grass. Fowls become thoroughly domesticated by being 
thus treated. Those that are inclined to sit, are put 
outside ; they will hang about and make an effort to get 
in, and the desire to sit soon passes away. The manure 
is all saved to the best advantage, being applied at once. 



CHAPTER IV. 

POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 

Anything that will add to the ease of management 
of the poultry-yard is gladly welcomed. The practice 
among farmers of letting their poultry roost about the 
farm buildings upon harrows, plows, wagons, and farm 
machinery is growing less prevalent each year, as many 
of them are building suitable poultry-houses. 



PEKCHES, ETC. 

At figure 16 is shown a neat and handy arrange- 
ment of perches; r, r, r } are scantling, eight feet in 




Fig. 16. 



length, two inches thick, and three inches wide, made 
of some tough, light wood. The upper ends are hinged 
to the side of the building, four feet apart, and are con- 
(31) 



32 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



nected by means of roosts or perches made of octagonal 
strips nailed fast to the supports. Perches should be 
placed about eighteen inches apart. At any time when it 
is desired to gather up the droppings, the end of the 
frame-work is raised and fastened to the ceiling or roof 
by a hook at n, the whole arrangement being up out of 
the way for thorough cleaning. At the corner of the 
building, opposite the roost, is placed a box, p, contain- 
ing ashes, road-dust, etc., that the fowls may dust them- 
selves. The box should be two feet square and about one 
foot in height, and should be kept half filled with dust- 
ing material, both summer and winter. In the corner 
is placed a box, e, and should contain a supply of gravel 
and broken oyster-shells. The foregoing conveniences 
cost but little and will prove valuable additions to any 
poultry-house. 



LOW ROOSTS. 

For the large fowls low roosts should be used, as they 
cannot reach high ones without a ladder, and in drop- 
ping from them are very apt to injure themselves. A 




Fig. 17. 



roosting- frame, made for Asiatic fowls, is shown at Fig. 
17. It is made of chestnut strips two inches square, 
with the edges of the upper part rounded off to make 
them easy to the feet of th« fowls. Three of these strips 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 33 

are fastened to frames made of the same material for 
supports. The whole is fastened to the wall by rings 
fixed in staples, so that it can be turned up and held 
against the wall by a hook. It is twelve feet long, 
three feet wide, and should stand eight inches from the 
wall and about one foot from the floor. 



STOVE FOB A POULTRY-HOUSE. 

A simple and safe method of warming a poultry-house 
in winter is as follows: With a few bricks and common 
mortar build a box five feet long and two and one-half 
feet wide, leaving an open space in the front about a foot 
wide. Lay upon this wall, when fourteen inches high, 
so as to cover the space within the wall except about six 
inches at the rear end, a plate of sheet-iron. Build up 
the wall a foot above the iron and then build in 
another plate of iron, covering the space inclosed 
all but a few inches at the front. Then turn an arch 
over the top and leave a hole at the end for a stove- 
pipe. A small fire made in the bottom at the front will 
then heat this stove very moderately; the heat passing 
back and forth, will warm the whole just sufficient to 
make the fowls comfortable, and there will be no danger 
of injury to their feet by flying up upon the top, as it will 
never be hot if a moderate fire only is kept. The stove 
will be perfectly safe, and may be closed by a few loose 
bricks laid up in front, through which sufficient air will 
pass to keep the fire burning slowly. Ordinarily a fire 
need only be made at night during the coldest weather. 



NEST-BOXES. 

Many farmers and other persons who keep poultry 
fail to provide nests for their hens^ and then grumble be- 
3 



34 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



cause they seek their nesfa about and under the farm 
buildings in fence corners, under brush-heaps, and va- 
rious out-of-the-way places. If clean boxes, provided 
with straw or other nesting material, had been put up 
at convenient points, the hens would have used them and 
would not " steal''* their nests. A very good size for a 
nest-box is little more than one foot square and nine or 
ten inches in depth. They should be well made; and 
if planed and painted, all the better. Apply kerosene 
freely to the inside, where the boards are nailed to- 
gether. This should be applied early in spring, and 
again about the first of July; it will kill hen-lice and 

also prevent their getting 

•" ' 



a foothold about the boxes. 
Nest-boxes should never 
be permanently attached 
to buildings, but placed 
upon a floor, or hung up- 
on the side of a hennery 
or other convenient place 
for both fowls and atten- 
dant. An excellent plan 
for thus securing the boxes 
is shown in Fig. 18. At 
one side of the box, near 
the top, is bored an inch hole, through which a wooden 
or iron pin driven in the side of the building passes 
loosely. Considerable annoyance is often experienced 
by laying hens interfering with those that are sitting ; 
often a whole sitting of eggs is broken. This trouble is 
readily avoided by those who have a poultry-house with 
two rooms, by the use of sliding boxes, as shown in Fig. 
19. A hole is cut through the partition about two feet 
from the floor, to the bottom of which is firmly nailed a 
shelf or platform, e, e, about two feet in length and 
nearly one foot in width. Upon this board rest the 




Fig. 18. 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 



30 



nest-boxes, made so that they can be easily slid back and 
forth. The ends are made one inch higher than the 




Fig. 19. 

sides, that they may not slide clear through or fall down. 

At I one box is shown pulled out in the room, while at 

a the box is seen pushed 

through into the adjoining 

room. As fast as the hens 

manifest a desire to sit, they 

may be furnished with eggs 

and put in the sitting-room, 

in which laying fowls are 

not allowed. As all do not 

have poultry-houses, a box similar to the one shown m 

Fig. 20 may be adopted. A light frame-work of lath is 

placed over the box before moving. 




Fig. 201 



A SET OF NEST-BOXES, 

made without nails, which can be quickly taken apart 
for packing away, whitewashing, etc., may be made of 



36 PROFITS IIST POULTRY. 

any size to suit. The top and bottom boards have ten* 
ons on the ends passing through mortises in the end- 
boards, and held in place by wooden pins, as shown in 
the accompanying engraving, Fig. 21. The top and bot- 
tom boards have half-inch holes bored through them, 
which receive pins that pass into the corresponding 




Fig. 21. 

Jholes bored in the edges of the partition boards. As 
these partition pieces are all alike, they are easily put in 
place. There is a bar or step along the front of the 
nests to prevent any eggs from falling out; the bottom 
board of the upper tier may extend forward for a few 
inches to serve as a place upon which the fowls may 
alight. 



A NEST FOR EGG-EATING HENS. 

In the winter season hens frequently acquire the habit 
of eating eggs. Sometimes this vice becomes so con- 
firmed that several hens may be seen waiting for an- 
other one to leave her nest, or to even drive her off, so 
that they may pounce upon the egg, the one that drops it 
being among the first to break it. In this state of affairs 
there is no remedy except to find some method of pro- 
tecting the egg from the depredators." The easiest way 
of doing this is to contrive a nest in which the egg will 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 



37 



drop out of reach. Such a nest is shown in the engrav- 
ing. It consists of a box with two sloping floors ; one 
of these being depressed below the other sufficiently to 
make a space through which the egg can roll down out 
of the way. An extension of the box with a lid affords 
a means by which the eggs can be removed. Upon the 
bottom board of the nest a wooden or other nest egg is 




Fig. 21. a 

fastened by a screw or by cement. The sloping floors 
may be covered with some coarse carpet or cloth, upon 
which it is well to quilt some straw or hay, and the 
bottom floor should be packed with chaff or moss, upon 
which the eggs may roll without danger of breaking. If 
the eggs do not roll down at once, they will be pushed 
down by the first attempt of a hen to pick at them. 



A BARREL HENS NEST. 

A hen's nest made of a whole barrel is vastly better 
than one in which the head is knocked out, and the ben 
is obliged to jump down from the top into her nest, and 
thus break the eggs. Two staves are cut through im- 
mediately above the hoops, and again eight inches above 



38 



PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 



the first cut, the pieces cut out, leaving a hole large 
enough for the convenience of the hen. Barrels thus 
arranged are placed in quiet corners, where hens love to 
seclude themselves, and straw or other material is sup- 
plied for the nest. 



WIRE 2STEST. 



Figure 22 is an illustration of a good nest, which may 
be kept free from vermin. It is made of wire, or a simi- 
lar one may be woven of willows or splints by any in- 
genious boy. A round piece of wood is fastened to the 




Fig. 22. 



front for the hen to alight upon, iron or wire hooks are 
fastened to it, by which it maybe hung upon nails driven 
in the wall, and a pieco of shingle planed smooth is fast- 
ened to the front, upou which the date when the hen 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 



39 



commenced to sit may be written. When a wire nest 
needs cleaning, it is laid on the ground in the yard, the 
straw set on fire, and after that is consumed there will be 
no vermin left to infest the nest. A basket-nest may be 
drenched with boiling water and purified. 



A LOCKED NEST-BOX. 

It frequently happens that a nest-box that will lo^k 
up is desired. Such a box may be made 3 feet square 
and 18 inches deep, which will be large enough for two 
nests. The door is at a. At b is a partition extending 
half through the box, and at the inside of this are two 




Fig. 23. 



nests about 8 inches deep, 16 inches long, and 12 inches 
wide. These are seen through the side of the box, which 
is partly removed for this purpose. For small breeds of 
poultry the box may be made considerably smaller. 
Such a retired nest as this exactly meets the instincts of 
the hen, and it becomes very acceptable to her. 



40 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



TIDY NESTS. 



Hens often get the habit of sitting on the edge of their 
nests, and this results in the defilement of the nests and 
prevents other hens using them. A roller may be ar- 
ranged at. the front so that the fowls cannot roost upon 




Fig. 34. 

it, nor stand on it to fight other hens from them. The 
end partitions are raised 2 inches at the front above the 
others, and a roller or 8-sided rod, 2 inches thick, is fast- 
ened with a wooden pin at each end so that it will turn 
easily and a hen cannot roost upon it. 



PNEUMATIC FOUNTAIN. 

To prevent young chicks from fouling the water in 
the saucers in which it is given to them, take a common 
fruit can, remove the top, and cut or file but one (and 
that a triangular) notch, only \ inch high for a saucer or 
pan in which water will stand f to 1 inch deep, as indi- 
cated in the engraving Fig. 25. Fill the can with water, 
place the saucer on top, and quickly reverse it, and you 
have a " pneumatic " fountain holding about one quart, 
which the chickens cannot foul. As the water is drunk 
or evaporates, more runs out of the can, keeping the 
saucer always full to the height of the notch, 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 



41 



FEED-TROUGH. 



A device for keeping feed-troughs free from dirt, rain, 
or snow, is shown at figure 26. Supports are attached 




Fig. 25. 



fco the trough, and extend equally above it, as at E, E, 
H, H, and should hold the trough six inches above the 
ground. When the trough is not in use, it may be tilted 




Fig. 26. 



over so that it will be kept free from water, or rubbish, 
and always be in a proper condition whenever needed 
for use. 



42 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



WINTER FOUNTAIN. 

Poultry sometimes suffer greatly in winter through 
having their water supply cut off by freezing. There is 
some difficulty in keeping them constantly supplied with 
water in severe weather, but it can be done if one appre- 
ciates the necessity. A method is here illustrated which 
has proved of great value. A cask or flour-barrel is sawed 
in two, and one half used as the covering to the water-jug. 
An earthen jug is so fastened into the half-barrel by 
means of cross-pieces that its mouth will come near the 
bottom of the tub, upon one side— a piece of a stave being 




Fig. 27. 

removed at that point. The space around the jug is filled 
with fermenting horse-manure, and slats are nailed 
across when the " fountain" is ready for use. Fill the 
jug with water and cork it ; then invert the tub, bring- 
ing the mouth of the jug over a basin, as shoAvn in the 
engraving. When the cork is withdrawn the water will 
flow until the mouth of the jug is covered ; it will then 
cease, and as the water is used, more will come from the 
iug, and so on, forming a continuous self-acting foun- 
tain. Such a contrivance will keep the water from 
freezing, ^except in the coldest winter weather. The jug 
should be emptied at night. 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 



43 



FOLDING SHIPPING-CRATE. 

On farms, where chickens have full run of the yards, 
they pick up a great deal of food which would otherwise 
be wasted, and the cost of raising a limited number is com- 
paratively small; but where they must be fed with grain, 
the profits are reduced to a fraction, and a very small 
fraction if they are sold to the storekeeper for "trade." 
One of the chief reasons why more farmers do not ship 
their own poultry is the lack of suitable shipping-crates. 
Express companies charge for weight, and unless the 




Fig. 28. 



crates are light and well made, they object to returning 
them free. Poultry sells better in crates that are light, 
handsome, and airy. 

An excellent folding-crate invented and used by Fred 
Grundy is thus described : The crate is exactly square. 
Figure 28 shows two sides and the bottom, or floor, as 
they are made and put together. Figure 29 shows the 



44 



PROFITS IK POULTRY* 



crate empty and folded, also the top, or cover, with its 
trap-door. The entire frame-work is of any tough wood 
— ash is best — one and a half to two inches square, ac- 
cording to size of crate. The bottom is half-inch pine. 
The wire used is common fence wire. The sides (Fig. 
28) are hinged to the bottom, or floor, and when folded 
lie flat on the bottom. On the top of the side, two pins, 
a, a, iron or wood, fit into holes in frame of the cover. 
The sides are hinged to pieces which are screwed to the 
bottom, and when folded lie up on the sides. Through 




Fig. 29. 



the top of the sides are two three-sixteenth-inch holes, 
c, c, into which bolts of the same size are passed, and, 
entering holes s, s, in the cover, hold it down. When 
the crate is folded these bolts are withdrawn from the 
holes c, c, and passed through the holes e, e, in the 
bottom piece of the same side, and then through holes 
in cover, and hold the whole crate solid and flat for ship- 
ping. Thumb-nuts should be put on these bolts, requir- 
ing no wrench. 

The crate can be made of any size desired. A crate 
holding three to five dozen chickens is usually large 
enough. In shipping long distances care should be taken 



POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 45 

to not crowd the birds. Give plenty of room and it will 
pay in the end. Where the distance is short, ten or 
fifteen hours' travel, they Avill not hurt in this crate if 
crowded considerably, as they cannot become heated. 
When well made of good, seasoned wood, this crate will 
stand a large number of trips. It should be well washed 
after each shipment. The wood should be well oiled, 
but not painted. If thought desirable, the wires on tho 
cover may be braced in one or two places with binding 
wire. Fasten one end to the frame, wrap it twice 
around each wire, and fasten to opposite side of frame. 




JHAPTER V. 

NATURAL INCUBATION 

Although, in our opinion, there is greater skill re- 
(uired in caring for the little chicks than in getting 
them out well, a good deal of the success of the poultry 
crop depends upon the management of the hens while 
sitting. Those that steal their nests and follow their 
own instincts do very well if they are not disturbed, but 
frequently they get frightened or robbed, and the egga 
are lost. As a rule, it is better to have all the sitting 
birds completely under your control, and make them 
follow your will rather than their own instincts. With 
a well-arranged poultry-house it takes but a little time 
daily to have all the birds come off for food and exer- 
cise. But without this we can manage to make the 
sitters regular in their habits. The best plan, usually, 
is to set the hens near together in a sheltered spot in 
boxes or barrels that we can cover, and thus perfectly 
protect them against enemies, and at the same time 
compel them to sit until the box is uncovered. Wher- 
ever they may lay, when they want to sit, remove them 
to a shed in an inclosed yard, by night, and put them 
securely upon a nest full of eggs. Every day about 
twelve o'clock remove the covers, and carefully take the 
hens from their nests for food and water. In pleasant 
weather they take from half to three-quarters of an 
hour to scratch in the dirt and take their dust-bath. 
Most of them return to their nests voluntarily before 
the time is up. Occasionally a bird will take go the 
wrong nest. It takes but a few minutes to see every 
bird in her place, and make her secure for the next 
twenty-four hours. As the hatchirg-time approaches, 
(46) 



NATURAL INCUBATION. 47 

#ip the eggs in tepid water every day to keep the pores 
open, and to facilitate the hatching. This moistening 
of the eggs will be found of special service in the hatch- 
ing of the eggs of water-fowls set under hens. Follow 
ing this method, good success with sitting hens is almosl 
certain. 

The selection of the eggs for hatching is an important; 
matter. Some of our leading Asiatic fanciers make it a 
point to select eggs which have a particular cast of 
color. They claim that dark mahogany color in the 
shell of Brahma eggs alone indicates their absolute 
purity. While there are others of equal note as breed- 
ers who say it is all nonsense to regard the color of 
eggs that are deemed fit or unfit for hatching. But it 
is well, however, to look to shape and size, for it is 
clearly demonstrated that the regular, medium, well- 
formed oval eggs without extreme length, very small 
or very large ends, without wrinkles or furrows of any 
kind, are the best for hatching. 

It is important, too, in the selection of eggs, to look 
to size. A happy medium must be secured in this as 
well as in some other things. In size they should be 
neither too large nor too small for the variety. When 
eggs of any kind are over-sized, they are usually double- 
yolked. and are, therefore, useless for batching. And 
when they are under-sized, they are not so good as the 
average. Select from your best layers smooth, hard- 
surfaced eggs, without indentations, and of fair medium 
dimensions and proportions. 



EGG-TESTERS. 

A bad egg is never welcome, and any simple device 
that will quickly and satisfactorily detect the quality of 
an egg is important, A very simple method is shown in 



48 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 




Fig. 30. 



Fig. 30. The egg is so held that the hand cuts off all 

direct rajs of light from the eye, except those passing 
through the egg. The egg may be 
held toward the sun, or, better, tow- 
ard the light from a lighted candle 
or lamp in a dark room. Egg- test- 
ers are made in which more than one 
egg may be examined at once. A 
small box, either of wood or paste- 
board, is used, with a number of 
" egg-holes" cut in the cover. A 
mirror is placed within, set at a 
slant towards one side of the box, 

which is cut away for observation. If the interior 

of the box is painted black, the 

effect will be better. The quality 

of the eggs is determined by their 

degree of clearness. A fresh egg 

shows a clear, reddish, translucent 

light; an egg fit, perhaps, for cook- 
ing, but not for hatching, a less 

clear light. 

The accompanying engraving 

(Fig. 31) represents a contrivance 

for testing the freshness or fertility 

of eggs, useful in the household or 

to the poultry-fancier. It consists 

of a small handle, with a cup in the 

end of it; around the cup is fast- 
ened a frame of sheet-tin or stiff 

card-board. This frame has a hole 

in the center, of the shape and size 

of an egg, and a strip of black 

ribbon or cloth is fastened around 

the frame, projecting a little beyond the inner edge. 

To test the egg, it is placed in the cup, so as to fill 




Fig. 31. 



2STAIUEAL INCUBATION. 49 

the space in the center of the frame, the edge of the 
black cloth or ribbon fitting close to the shell. When 
the egg is held close to a bright light, the light passes 
through the egg, and shows a fresh or infertile one 
to be perfectly clear, while a fertile one that has 
been sat upon, or that has been in the incubator two 
days, will show the embryo, as in the engraving, as a 
dark cloudy spot. Infertile eggs may then be taken 
from the nest or from the incubator on the third to the 
fifth day. 



CARE OF SITTING HENS. 

March is the month to set hens, for the earlier after 
this they are set, the better the chicks will prove. Of 
course every hen has been set that would stick to her 
nest during the past month ; but as hens must lay out 
their clutches before the sitting fever takes possession 
of them, the larger number will not be ready for the nest 
before this month. Sell none but surplus eggs now, but 
crowd the heus by setting all that can be relied upon. 
When it comes to finding them all nests, much discre- 
tion is needed, that confusion does not cause trouble 
and loss. Of course, the simplest way to set them is in 
rows in the hen-house ; but the hens will not all remem- 
ber their own nests, and will crowd two or three on one 
nest, leaving their own eggs to become cold and perish. 
It is advisable to set the hens in different rooms and apart 
from one another ; but if the nest rows must be used, 
then there must be careful watchfulness. A good rule 
is to keep the windows well darkened, so that the hens 
will not be tempted to leave their nests until noon. 
When you give the other chickens their noonday meal, 
and while they are feeding, go into the hen-house, taKe 
4 



50 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

all the sitting hens off the nests, and make them go out 
to feed. While they are out, clear the nests of broken 
eggs, dirt, and feathers, loosen up the straw a little, and 
dust Persian insect-powder over the eggs. Now comes 
the critical time. Do not forget what you have done, 
ami do not trust the hens, but within half an hour be 
3r e to return, and see that each is on her own proper 
nest, or you will have trouble every time they come off. 
Hens are creatures of habit, and a little training goes a 
great way with them. If they can be made to keep the 
same nest three or four days, there will be little danger 
that they will make any mistake about it for the re- 
mainder of the time. That will save you the trouble of 
moving them, but not the responsibility of seeing that 
they return promptly to their nests after feeding. When 
all is right, darken the sitting-room again and leave them 
until the next day at feeding-time. 



SECURE LAYING AND SITTING BOX FOR HENS. 

There have been several devices, some of them patented, 
for accomplishing this end, which we here show how to 
do by a simple, home-made contrivance. Take or make 
a box three feet long by two feet wide (a, a). Take off 
tone side, as shown in figure 32; tack on two cleats, 
and fit in a partition (d). Take out the partition, and 
cut a square hole, a little more than a foot square, near 
one end, and a notch an inch wide and six inches long 
on the opposite end. Make an opening for the hen to 
enter bv (b), in the end of the box above the partition, 
and at the point where the notch is cut. The partition 
d forms the floor of the laying and sitting room. A box 
a foot square and eight inches deep is made to fit loose- 
ly in the opening in the floor. This is the nest, e. It 



NATURAL LtsTCUBATION. 



51 



is balanced on a hard -wood edge, upon the end of a 
broad lever, which works upon another edge of hard- 
wood affixed to the bottom. A weight, h, placed near 
the end of the lever, counterbalances the nest as may be 
necessary, and a tin plate, g, attached to the end of the 
lever will rise and close the opening b, as a door, when 
the weight of the hen causes the nest to descend. The 
entire side, which is absent in the diagram, should be 
fastened on hj screws so as to be easily removed, or at- 
tached by hinges to the bottom, so as to give access to 
the working parts. The sides of the nest must be 




Fig. 32. 

greased, and of course the tin door must move up and 
down without any catching. The counterbalancing of 
the nest should be so adjusted that the weight of six 
teen average-sized eggs, say two pounds and a half, will 
bring it down. No laying hen weighs less than this, 
except Bantams, and perhaps some ,of the Hamburgs. 
So whenever a hen is on the nest the door will be closed. 
When she leaves it, the door will open. The advantages 
are that only one hen will occupy the nest at a time, and 
fighting over the eggs and breakage are thus prevented. 
Then, when a hen is set and is likely to be disturbed, 
the weight may be entirely removed, in which case the 
door will remain closed, whether she is upon or off the 
eggs. She may be let out towards evening, daily, after 
the other hens have laid, or food and water may be 



52 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



placed for her on the floor. In this case, a pane of seven 
by nine glass ought to be inserted in the top, or on the 
fixed side. At hatching-time she should be shut in un- 
til she brings off: her brood. It is, moreover, important 
that a portion of the top (i) should be removable, or 
hinged on so that an attendant may have access to the 
interior at any time. Access to the nest by egg-eating 
dogs is by this method entirely prevented, unless the 
dogs are very small, in which case a board a little 
wider than the door, placed six inches in front of it, and 
nailed firmly both at top and bottom, will exclude even 
them. 



A BROODING-PEN FOR HENS. 

We have for several years used enclosed brooding-pens 
for hens with much satisfaction. Success with poultry 
depends wholly upon the convenient and effective man- 




Fig. 33.— BROODING-PEN. 

agement of the brood hens and the chicks. "When hens 
cannot help it, they will do as their owners wish, and 
there are then peace and comfort and prosperity in the 
poultry-house. These pens are built around a part of 



NATURAL INOUBATIOK. 53 

the poultry-honac, kept specially for the sitting hens. 
Each one is four by four, and three feet high; it has a 
hinged lid, which can be thrown back against the wall 
when it is desired, for attendance upon the hen. The 
front is covered with wire netting. The nest, shown by 
the removal of one side of a pen, is a box about sixteen 
inches square open in the front, and having a very low 
piece to keep the nest in it, and to permit the hen to step 
in and out. When it is necessary, the nest is closed by 
placing a piece of board in front of it. This is done for 
a day or two when the hen is restless, after having been 
put in the nest. When she is settled down, the board 
is removed. Each pen is supplied with a feeding dish 
and water-cup, and is littered with sawdust. It is at- 
tended to every evening by lamp-light; the feed and 
water are renewed, and the droppings are removed, a pail 
and small shovel being kept in the house for this pur- 
pose. A pail of water and another of feed are carried 
to the house every evening. The hens are thus kept un- 
disturbed during the day, although they are visited regu- 
larly to see that all is right. Each hen is separate and 
cannot see the others, and, the house being partly dark- 
ened and kept warm, the hens are quiet and comfortable, 
and mind their business satisfactorily. 



CHAPTEB VI. 

CARE OF CHICKS— COOPS FOR THEM. 

The foundation of the various poultry diseases is gen- 
erally laid while the young chicks are in the coops. 
There they are crowded in a confined place, which is 
frequently damp and unclean. They are shut up close 
at night in these impure quarters, or they are allowed to 




Fig. 34. 

go out early in the morning, while the grass is wet with 
dew, and becomed chilled. Some die and some survive, 
to live unhealthily and die finally of roup or cholera. To 
prevent these troubles, the chickens, while young, should 
have the very best of care. The coops should be so made 
as to secure cleanliness, dryness, ventilation, safety, and 
to control the movements of the chickens. A coop of 
this character, which is very convenient in use, is shown 
in the accompanying illustrations. It is not costlv, and 
(54) 



CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOR THEM. 



55 



it will pay to use it for common chickens. It is portable, 
having handles by which it can be lifted while closed, 
and moved to fresh clean ground. It therefore secures 
cleanliness, as ground that has been occupied by a 
number of chickens for a few days becomes foul and un- 
wholesome. It is also provided with a floor-board or 
drawer, which can be withdrawn every day, and cleaned. 
If this is supplied with fresh sand or earth daily, the 
coop will be kept clean and sweet, and the manure 




Fig 35. 



dropped may be preserved for use. It secures dryness, 
because it is raised from the ground by feet at the 
corners, and is covered with a broad sheltering roof. It 
has good ventilation, even when closed, by means of 
the wire gauze at the front, and by holes in the ends, 
which should also be covered with wire gauze. It is safe; 
no chickens can be killed in moving it; it is shut up at 
night, so that no rata or weasels can enter, and the chicks 
cannot roam abroad when the ground is wet. The 
movements of the hen and chickens can be controlled 
With facility, as the roof is hinged at the peak, and opens 



56 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



to admit or remove the hen. The door at the front is 
hinged, and, when opened, is let down to the ground, 
and makes a sloping platform upon which the chickens 
go in or out, and when closed is secured by a button. 
Twice in the season the coops should be whitewashed 




Fig. 36. 



with hot fresh lime, which will keep them free from ver 
min. Fig. 34 shows a front view of the completed coop, 
arranged for two hens. Fig. 35 gives the rear view with 
the floor withdrawn, to be enptied and refilled, as well 
as the shape of the movable floor. In Fig. 36 is a sec- 




Fig. 37. 

tion of the coop through the middle, showing the manner 
in which it is put together; and figure 37 is the drawer- 
floor board. There is economy in using such a coop as 
this, as one hen, when well cared for, may be made to 
bring up two or three broods together, and the hens dis- 
carded as mothers go to laying again. 



CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOR THEM. 57 



BOX CHICKEN-COOP. 

An ordinary dry-goods box may be used for a chicken- 
coop. To the open end a frame or lath is fastened, thus 
making a run or yard for the chickens when the box 
is placed upon the ground, as shown in figure 38. 



Fig. 38 



The box furnishes a comfortable place for the hen and 
chickens during stormy weather, an escape from the hot 
sun, etc. When not in use the lath frame can be taken 
from^fHie box, its three sides and ends separated, and 
stored away for use another season. 



BARREL CHICKEN-COOPS. 



Any old barrel that would otherwise be thrown away 
may be put to good use in making a comfortable place 
for a hen and chickens. Brace the barrel on the two 
sides with bricks or stones to keep it from rolling; raise 



58 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



the rear enough to brhi£ the lower edge of the open 
end close to the ground; five a few stakes in front and 




Fig. 39. 



trie coop is complete. It is best to put the barrel near 
a fence, that it may be all the more secure and out of 




Fig. 40. 



the way. Nests for turkeys may be made in the same 
way, in out-of-the-way places, omitting the stakes, and 
putting in a good supply of straw to make the nest. 



CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOR THEM. 



59 



Very good chicken-coops may be made of old flour or 
fruit barrels. One way in which they may be made is 
by removing the hoops from one end, and putting them 
inside, in such a manner that the staves are forced apart 
on one side, as shown in Fig. 39. The barrel is set on the 
ground, with the open staves downward. On the other 
side of the barrel the staves should be kept close to- 
gether, as a protection against the weather and vermin. 
Another way is to cut off the end of each alternate 




Fig. 41.— FEEDING-PEN FOR CHICKS. 

stave,* in lines, about three inches from each other. The 
halves of the barrels then taken apart, and set bottom 
upwards, make very good coops, as shown in Fig. 40. If 
a piece of leather is fastened upon the top of one of 
these coops, so as to form a handle, it may be lifted and 
moved to fresh ground very readily. Young chicks, that 
are permitted to range with the large fowls, may be fed 
without interference by the others, in an in closure 
which may be made as shown in Fig. 41. Common 
laths are sawn into proper lengths and nailed to a 
frame, three inches space being left for the chicks to gfo 



60 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



in and out. On one side the laths are cut off six inches 
from the ground, and a strip, A, three inches wide, is 
secured so as to be raised as the chicks grow larger, to 
permit them to pass under it. If made ten feet long 
and five feet wide, it will be large enough to feed 200 
chicks. The frames for the sides and ends may be at- 
tached to each other by pins, or hooks and staples, and 
when not in use they may be taken apart and packed 
away until again required. 



REARING EARLY CHICKENS. 

Warmth is . the only requisite for rearing early 
chickens, which one finds it difficult to provide early in 
the season. But there is an easy way to furnish thisfof 
the early broods, where the other conveniences are coi? 




^;v^V 



Fig. 42. 



sistent with it; that is, where the poultry-house is tight 
and warm, and is kept clean and free from vermin, and 
where the fowls are fed judiciously. The illustration 
(Fig. 42) represents an annex to a poultry-house, made 
at very little cost. It was built at the end of the poul- 



CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOR THEM. 61 

try-house, and a door from this opened into it. It 
measures ten by twelve feet on the ground, and seven 
and a half feet high at the top of the roof. It required 
seven common hot-bed sashes, purchased for one dollar 
each (three of those are shown and the other four should 
be seen under the overhanging eaves), and the rest of 
the material cost about ten dollars. The floor was the 
ground, which was sandy and dry, and soon became 
quite warm under the heat of the sun even in January. 
When the hens wanted to brood, they were carried in 
the movable nest into this warm house, where they were 
fed and watered daily, and could enjoy a bath in the 
dry, warm, sandy floor. The droppings were gathered 
up daily in a pail, and carried out, and the house was 
kept as clean and sweet as possible. When the young 
chicks appeared, and had been nursed in the warm 
brooder, which has been previously described, they were 
given to the hen, who was put into a coop, and usually 
two broods were given to each, and sometimes three. A 
good, quiet Light Brahma or Plymouth Rock hen will 
take twenty-four or twenty-five chicks and rear them 
all safely when thus cared for, as the warm house 
greatly relieves her from the work of brooding the 
chicks and keeping them warm. The chicks are fed 
four times a day, the chief food at the first being crushed 
wheat and coarse oatmeal, with coarse cracked corn and 
clean water in a shallow plate, in the center of which an 
inverted tin fruit-can is placed, to prevent the chicks 
from running through it. The advantage of such a 
house as this is that chicks can be reared that are fit 
for market so early as to bring the highest price. An 
instance may be given of the income from a small flock 
of twenty light Brahma hens for a' year, from January 
to December, which left a clear profit of a little over 
seven dollars per hen. It is quite possible to do this 
with a flock of one hundred hens which are good brood* 



62 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

ers, kept in one house and yard, and properly kept and 
cared for with such help as this, to secure early broiling 
chickens, as these bring a high price. A brood of eight 
chicks, which is a fair average for each hen, sold at 
seventy-five cents each, will make six dollars alone, and 
some of the cockerels in the case mentioned sold in the 
fall for eighteen cents a pound, and weighed nine 
pounds each, making one dollar and sixty-two cents 
each. 



BROODERS FOR EARLY CHICKENS. 

The greatest profit in poultry-keeping is from the 
early chickens. By good feeding and management 
some of the hens may be brooding in January, and all 
the chicks may be saved by the use of artificial brooders. 
Incubators are used by experts with success, but farmers 
and ordinary poultry- keepers are rarely successful with 
these machines. Brooders, however, may be used by any 
person, even a boy or girl, who will simply see that the 
heat is not excessive, and when the chicks open their 
mouths, give them fresh air. Eighty degrees is quite 
enough warmth for newly hatched chicks, which are 
taken from the nest as they come out, and are placed in 
the brooder until all the brood is out, when they may be 
removed to a warm, glazed coop, with the hen. Young 
chicks have been thus nursed until they were strong, 
which ran about in the snow in February with great 
pleasure and comfort, and not one was lost out of a lot 
of ninety, which were all hatched in January. All that 
is required is to have a warm part of the buildings or an 
attic room for the setting hens, and glazed coops set in 
a sunny place out of doors for the chicks when they 
come from the brooder. The brooder (fig. 43) is a box 
eighteen inches square or thereabouts, one end opening 



CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOE THEM. 



63 



as a door and closing tight, lined with hair felt, or 
blanket cloth, and having a shelf in the middle, and a 
glass in the upper half of the door, so that the chicks 
may be seen. A tin heater having handles and a screw- 
opening to put in the hot water, fits into the lower part, 
which is also lined with the felt or double blanket. The 
neater is filled with boiling water and put in its place, 
wrapped in a piece of blanket to retain the heat and 
moderate it. A nest, covered with a sheet of paper, 
which can be removed when soiled, is put on the shelf. 
A pasteboard box, upon half-inch cleats, makes a good 
nest. A thermometer is kept in the nest, so that the 




Fig. 43. 

warmth may be regulated by putting more blanket over 
the heater, or by ventilating the brooder by holes in the 
door, closed by corks. Chipped eggs will be hatched in 
such a brooder ; weak chicks may be saved, and all the 
losses by chicks being crushed in the nest are avoided. 
The heat is admitted to the nest by holes in the shelf. 
Another brooder is shown at Fig. 44. This is a 
larger and shallower box, having a tray in the upper 
part with a slatted or wire gauze floor, upon which the 
heater rests ; a lid is made to cover this tray. This heat 
descends through the floor of the tray into the lower 
part of the brooder, which is hung closely with shcrt 



64 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



folds of flannels or woolen cloth for the chicks to nestle 
among. This is shown in the illustration. A glazed 
cover is put over the front of the brooder where the 
chicks are fed. Newly hatched chicks do not want 
feeding for twenty-four hours or more, but they will 
drink some water (or, better,, milk) eagerly, and this 
should be supplied to them in a shallow plate. If one 
is taken in the hand and its beak is dipped in the water, 




it learns to drink at once. Crumbs of corn bread or 
cracked wheat are good food for such young chicks 
while they are in the brooder. It will interest some 
persons to know that in some hospitals in Paris similar 
warm brooders have been used for weakly infants for 
many years, and the writer saw them there thirty years 
ago, used in almost precisely the same manner as is here 
described for the previously mentioned brooder for 
chicks (Fig. 43). 



CHAPTER VII. 
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 

INCUBATORS AND BROODERS. 

In endeavoring to lay before our readers something 
that may be to their advantage, I will avail myself of the 
opportunity of describing that which is in practvjal 
operation, and do not call upon others to assist me in 
solving theories. There are hundreds of methods of 
hatching chicks artificially, as nothing more is necessary 
than keeping the eggs for three weeks under certain 
conditions of heat and moisture. What are those con- 
ditions, and why do failures occur so often, even when 
every attention is given the process? 

In the first place, there are a great many unforesee/ 
difficulties in the way that are overlooked or not antici 
pated. An incubator cannot hatch every fertile egg, 
neither can the hen do so; yet there are some manufac- 
turers who claim that the incubators made by them will 
hatch every fertile egg. To test the hatching of fertile 
eggs, I procured eggs from two different places. After 
placing them in the same incubator, and at the same 
time, I removed all clear eggs by the tenth day. Of the 
first lot of fifty eggs thirty-two were fertile, and of the 
second lot of fifty there were thirty-four fertile eggs. 
The eggs of the first lot hatched thirty chicks, while 
every chick of the second lot perished in the shell. 
Upon investigation, I found that the fowls from which 
the eggs of the first lot had been procured were in full 
health, and had plenty of exercise, a cockerel of about 

5 



66 PROFITS IK" POULTRY. 

one year of age being mated with two-year old hens. 
The eggs of the second lot were from hens that were 
mated with a brother, and the flock had been bred in for 
three years. The consequence was that while there was 
life in each egg there was not sufficient vitality in the 
chick to enable it to break out. 

There are numerous reasons for not expecting full 
hatches. Eggs from pullets do not always hatch, nor do 
those from hens that are very fat; yet such eggs may be 
fertile. Eggs that have been chilled will sometimes con- 
tain chicks that have advanced to the stage of ten days, 
when placed in an incubator; besides, frequent handling, 
or delay in placing them in the incubator, may also 
affect the result. Hence, the first and most important 
matter is to use eggs specially secured for the purpose. 
The hen that steals her nest, by running at large, and 
having all the privileges and advantages of exercise, 
hatches nearly all the eggs, for the reason that if one 
hatches all should do so, as they have the same parent- 
age, while we are compelled to use eggs from different 
hens, but few of them being alike in any respect. The 
hen deposits her eggs where they are seldom disturbed,, 
while we subject them to frequent handling and change- 
able temperatures. It is doubtful if any farmer would 
consider himself unlucky if he succeeded in raising 
seven chicks out of every ten hatched; yet this propor- 
tion is equal to a loss of thirty in every hundred. If, 
therefore, an incubator be used, this should be consid- 
ered, and when the loss is apparently heavy, a compari- 
son should be made with the work done by hens, which 
will, as a rule, be in favor of the incubator and 
brooder. 

Having stated what the conditions should be, so far 
as the eggs are concerned, the next step, is to consider 
the defects existing in many of the incubators that are 
placed upon the market; and as I am not a manufac- 



ARTIFICIAL IKCUBATIOtf. 67 

turer, nor interested in the sale of incubators, I have no 
object in view other than a desire to correct some of the 
mistakes that have been made in the construction of in- 
cubators. The supposition that a constant stream of 
pure air must flow through an incubator is, in my 
opinion, an error. Not that there should not be plenty 
of pure air, but it should not pass through as a current. 
The hen on the nest airs the eggs, but she keeps the air 
still and motionless. The desire to regulate an incu- 
bator has caused incubators to be constructed that open 
and shut off the heat very easily; but an observer may 
notice that they will often open and close the valves 
erery few minutes, thus causing the heat to change in 
as many times, and to allow of slow or fast currents 
according to the degree of frequency with which the 
valves open and shut. The best machines are those that 
sloiuly reach a point above or below the normal hatch- 
ing point. Too much air passes into the incubators 
and not enough in the brooders, as a rule. A little 
chick does not require so large a volume of air as is 
usually allowed, and a hundred of them together will 
not consume so much as a small quadruped. If the air 
is admitted below the eggs, there will always enough es- 
cape to allow fresh air to enter for ventilation. We now 
hatch them, in our section, in incubators holding 400 
eggs each, by closing the drawer, allowing no mode of 
ventilation other than to keep three or four one-inch 
tubes open at the bottom of the incubator, and the 
chicks remain thus shut up for twenty-four hours at a 
time without inconvenience. In fact, by leaving them in 
the drawer they are thoroughly dry and prepared for the 
brooder when taken out. A regulator should be a very 
simple arrangement. Some of them are so delicate in 
construction as to do more injury than good, and it is 
often the case that the regulator instead of the incubator 
must be watched. The majority of persons put too 



68 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

much faith in the regulator, relying upon it too implic- 
itly, and often fail in consequence. Other incubators 
regulate the heat very well, but cannot do away with 
the work of watching the flame of the lamps. The 
flame must be regulated according to the temperature 
of the outside atmosphere. To be successful the oper- 
ator must determine that he will do the work himself, 
and he must watch the incubator, whether it regulates 
or not. He who attempts to raise chickens artificially 
by using a self -regulating incubator without expecting 
to do anything except to trust to the machine, will 
always be of the opinion that incubators are humbugs. 
It means work and attention every time, but it is work 
that pays if well bestowed. 

In Hammonton we do not use any self-regulators at 
all. Our incubators are simply tanks surrounded by 
sawdust, made by placing the sawdust between an inner 
and larger box, the tank being in the top of the inner 
box. The tank for a hundred- egg incubator is 15x30 
inches, 7 inches deep, and rests on strips around the 
edges, with half-inch rods under it every six inches to 
support the weight of water. The egg-drawer is 15x36 
inches, 6inches'fitting in the space at the opening when 
the drawer is shut. This space in the front of the egg- 
drawer is also boxed off and filled with sawdust. The 
ventilator is six inches deep, the egg-drawer three inches 
deep inside. Two tin tubes, one inch in diameter, are 
placed at the bottom of the ventilator to admit air. 
Four inches of sawdust surround the inner box. A tube 
on top of the tank, which passes through the boxes, 
allows water to be poured in, while a spigot in front, 
over the egg-drawer, permits it to be drawn off. This 
tank is filled with boiling water. The eggs are hatched 
at 103 degrees. The heat is regulated by drawing off a 
bucket of water night and morning. The eggs are 
turned twice a day. Moisture is supplied with boxes of 



Artificial incubatiOK. 69 

moist smd r nder the egg-drawer, and by a few wet 
sponges in the egg-drawer. 

These incubators do not require any watching. No 
one gets up in the night to look after them. The large 
body of sawdust absorbs heat, and gives it up to the 
egg-drawer as it begins to cool; hence, the heat varies 
very slowly. If a lamp is preferred, it may be attached 
by having two tubes, one above the other, extending to 
a small "boiler" outside, which is heated by a lamp> 
capable of accurate regulation, in the usual way. 



HOW TO MAKE AN INCUBATOR. 

To make this incubator, get your tinner to make you 
a tank fifteen inches wide, thirty inches long, and 
twelve inches deep, of galvanized iron or zinc, the iron 
being preferable. On the top should be a tube one inch 
in diameter and eight inches high. In front should be 
another tube, nine inches long, to which should be at- 
tached a spigot. 

Having made your tank, have what :s called the ven- 
tilator made, which is a wooden box with a bottom, but 
no top. The ventilator should be eight inches deep, and 
one inch smaller all around than the tank, as the tank 
must rest on inch boards, placed upright to support it, 
or on iron rods. In the ventilator should be two or 
three tin tubes, one half inch in diameter and six inches 
long. They should extend through the bottom, so as to 
admit air from below, and to within two inches of the 
top, or a little less. 

Now make an egg-drawer, which is a frame of wood, 
three inches deep, having no top or bottom, except at 
the front, where it is boxed off and filled with sawdust, 
which is covered over afterward with a piece of muslin, 



iO PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

or boards, to keep the sawdust from spilling. Of course, 
the egg-drawer must be made longer than the tank and 
ventilator, in order to allow for this space which it fills 
in the opening, which is the packing all around the in- 
cubator. The bottom of the egg- drawer should be made 
by nailing a few slats lengthwise to the under side, or 
rather fitting them in nicely, and over the slats in the 
inside of the drawer a piece of thick, strong muslin 
should be tightly drawn. On this muslin the eggs are 
placed in the same position as if laid in a hen's nest. 
It allows the air to pass through to the eggs for ventila- 
tion. 

Having prepared the tank, let it be covered with a 
close-fitting box, but the box must not have any bottom. 
This is to protect the tank against pressure of water on 
the sides, and to assist in retaining heat. Such being 
done, place your ventilator first, egg-drawer next, and 
tank last. Now place a support under the tank and the 
box, or have them rest on rods, and as the weight of 
water will be great in the centre, the iron rods should 
be placed crosswise under the tank every six inches. 
Now fasten the three apartments (ventilator, egg- 
drawer, and tank) together, with boards nailed to the 
Sides and back and front (of course leaving the opening 
fjoi the egg-drawer), care being taken to drive no nails 
•n the egg-drawer, as it must move in and out, and 
should have a strong strip to rest on for that purpose. 
Having completed these preparations, make a larger 
box to go over all three, so that there will be a space on 
the sides, back, front, and on top, but as the ventilator 
must be filled with sawdust to within one inch of the 
top of the tubes, it serves for the bottom packing. 
Make the outer box so that there will be room for filling 
all around the inside box with sawdust, and also on top, 
being careful to let the tube for pouring in the water 
come through, as also the spigot in front. The front 



ARTIFICIAL IKCUBATICWo 71 

of the incubator must be packed also. The incubator 
should be raised from the floor about an inch, when com- 
pleted, to allow the air to pass under and thence into 
the ventilator tubes. 

The incubator being complete, the tank is filled with 
boiling water. It must remain untouched for twenty- 
four hours, as it requires time during which to heat 
completely through. As it will heat slowly, it will also 
cool slowly. Let it cool down to 110°, and then put in 
the eggs, or, what is better, run it without eggs for a 
day or two in order to learn it, and notice its variation. 
When the eggs are put in, the drawer will cool down 
some. All that is required then is to add about a 
bucket or so of hot water once or twice a day, but be 
careful about endeavoring to get up heat suddenly, as 
the heat does not rise for five hours after the additional 
bucket of water is added. The tank radiates the heat 
down on the eggs, there being nothing between the iron 
bottom of the tank and the eggs, for the wood over and 
around the tank does not extend across the bottom of 
the tank. The cool air comes from below in the ven- 
tilator pipes, passing through the muslin bottom of the 
egg-drawer to the eggs. The 15x30 inch tank incuba- 
tor holds 100 eggs. Lay the eggs in, the same as in a 
nest, promiscuously. 

In regard to the sawdust packing. The bottom board 
is wider than the ventilator. Each corner of this bottom 
board should be 2x3 well-fitted posts, the posts being 
six inches (or whatever height desired), higher than the 
three compartments (ventilator, egg- drawer, and tank) 
when the three are in position. To these posts fasten 
tongued and grooved boards, and you will then have 
the compartments enclosed with a larger box. Now fill 
in your sawdust (sides and top), covering the top saw- 
dust with the same kinds of boards, first boring a hole 
for the tube on top, or fitting the boards around it by 



72 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



bringing two boards together on a line with the tube, 
each having a crescent cut into them thus ( ). Be sure 
and fasten up the compartments by nailing Ithem to- 
gether in such a manner that no sawdust can get in the 
egg-drawer, and be careful to drive no nails into the egg- 
drawer when fastening the three compartments. As the 
tank should be covered with wood, it is best to fasten 



^^tej^^^^g^^ 




Fig. 45.— SECTION OP INCUBATOR. 

t/bb three parts together before making the outer box 
which holds the sawdust, by nailing upright strips 
closely together, fastening the top end to the wood sur- 
rounding the tank, and the bottom ends to the sides of 
uhe ventilator. We show in Fig. 45 a sectional view of 
tine incubator. 



DIRECTIONS. 



To give the directions plainly, in order to avoid com- 
pelling our readers to write u^, we will repeat them,, and 
be ps precise as possible: 

The incubator should be filled with boiling water. It 
will take a large quantity, but one 3 fil'ed ib will remain 
so. Let it remain shut up for twenty-four hou:s, in 
order to allow the heat to go all through it. Always 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION - . 73 

look at the thermometer as quickly as possible, as it varies 
quickly. The drawer should be at 103 degrees, and if 
warmer than that leave the drawer out a little while 
until it cools down, always shutting it up first, in order 
to let the heat accumulate a moment or two before look- 
ing at the thermometer. Never try to cool it with cold 
water, for the heat is in the packing, and you can never 
tell what the effect will be for several hours. Should 
you add hot water, it will be from two to four hours be- 
fore the increased heat appears. It is due to this fact 
that the incubator is so reliable, as the heating and cool- 
ing is gradual. When the thermometer reaches 110° 
put in the eggs. The eggs will cool the drawer, but do 
not be alarmed. Let them remain for an hour or two, 
and if the temperature is then below 100°, add a kettle- 
ful of water (nearly a bucketful), which will return the 
heat to about 103° in an hour or two. If the weather is 
moderate, once a day will only be necessary for adding 
water, but the better way to work the incubator is to 
divide the twenty-four hours into three periods of eight 
hours each, say 6 o'clock a.m., 2 p.m., and 10 p.m., when 
a gallon of water may be added at each time, and the 
eggs turned. This avoids late night work, and gives 
but little trouble. 

Be sure a?id practice with the incubator for three or 
four clays before putting in the eggs, for by so doing you 
will know just how much water to use. 

The colder the weather the more hot water. All in- 
cubators do best in an even temperature. 

Keep a pan of water in the ventilator, changing it to 
fresh water daily. 

Keep the heat as near 103° as possible, and the last 
three days not over 102°. 

Take the drawer out in the morning and let it remain 
out for the eggs to cool down to 70°. Then turn the 
eggs half way round, and place the drawer back. Make 



?4 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

a mark on each side of the egg in order to be guided in 
knowing which side is up correctly. Turn them morn- 
ing and night, but cool them down only once a day. 

Always keep a few wet sponges in the egg-drawer, as 
they will indicate the moisture. Put the thermometer 
in among the centre of the eggs, the top of the bulb on 
a line with the top of the eggs, the upper end of the 
thermometer kept slightly raised. 

Three weeks are required for hatching, and the tem- 
perature should not get below 98° nor over 105°. 
Should the eggs be over-heated, let them cool well, 
sprinkle them, and put them back. Heat as high as 108° 
for a short time is not necessarily fatal. Never sprinkle 
as long as the sponge keeps moist, and always sprinkle 
with tepid water. 

BE SURE your thermometer is correct, as one half 
of them are incorrect, the low-priced ones being as true 
as the highest-priced ones. Place your thermometer 
next to a hen's body under the wing; shut down the 
wing closely upon it; let it remain so for a minute. 
Then quickly look at the thermometer, and it should be 
at 104°. It is best, however, to have it tested in a pan 
of warm water, by the side of one known to be correct. 

Do not keep the incubator where there are any odors. 

When the chicks hatch do not remove them until 
they are dry; then put them in the brooder. Keep the 
heat in the brooder at not less than 90°. Feed at first 
hard-boiled eggs for a day or two. No food should be 
given the first twenty-four hours. Then feed oat-meal 
and corn-meal, cooked and moistened with milk. Feed 
four or five times a day, at first, for a week. Keep fine 
screenings, cracked corn, fine gravel, fine-ground oyster- 
shells, pulverized charcoal, and clean water always where 
they can get at such, and keep everything clean. Give 
mashed potatoes, chopped onions, or cabbage, or any- 
thing that serves as a variety. Be sure and not crowd 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATIOH. % 

-them. Divide them into small lots. Feed in little 
troughs. 

An egg-drawer two feet wide and three feet long will 
hold one hundred and fifty eggs with an egg-turner. A 
drawer three feet wide and four feet long holds three 
hundred eggs. Only one drawer can be used to an in° 
cubator. 



BROODERS. 



The principal conditions necessary in a brooder are 
plenty of fresh air and sufficient heat to prevent the 
chicks from crowding. We have a building here, now 
in operation, divided into ten apartments, each apartment 
being five by seven feet and accommodating one hun- 
dred chicks. The building is fifty feet long and ten feet 
wide, and a passage way running its whole length, and 
taking up three feet of the ten, leaving the spaces for 
the chicks seven feet. The yards are sixteen feet long 
and five feet wide. The chicks are all brooded with a 
stove. To describe how it is clone, we will explain that 
Fig. 46 is a box six inches deep, three feet wide, and fifty 
feet long. Two-inch iron pipes are arranged as shown 
in the illustration, the top of the box being removed to 
show the interior. The hot water may be supplied by 
an ordinary stove " water back," or by a coil of pipe in 
a stove. This is heated by a piece of pipe one inch in 
diameter, coiled in a stove, holes being cut in the stove for 
the purpose of admitting pipes. The hot water flows out 
and the cold water flows in. The floor of the box is made 
close, with tongued and grooved boards. The cold air 
enters through tubes reaching to the outside of the build- 
ing. It is heated by coming in contact with the pipes, 
and enters into the tubes on the top of the floor, which 
are two and a half inches hiofli. Over these tubes are 



76 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

little tables, one yard square and three inches high, 
with strips of cloth tacked around the edges. 

The advantages of this brooder are, that it gives the 
heat from the top, as the warm air strikes the under side of 
the table (or brooder) and diffuses itself over the chicks, 
which cannot crowd easily, as there are no sides or cor- 
ners. The warm air is pure, as it comes in fresh from 
the outside, and serves as heat and ventilation at the 
same time. Figs. 46 and 47 show the ground plan. The 
building has a window to each apartment, which is hung 
to a weight, so as to move up or down. Hence, when 
the window is up each apartment becomes ashed, open to 
the south. The chicks have a sand floor to scratch in, 
and are allowed to run in the yards when two weeks 
old. 

This building, together with the heating arrange- 
ments, did not cost over one hundred dollars. The chicks 
are about ready for market, and are expected to realize 
six hundred dollars gross. The cost for feeding the 
chicks to the age of ten weeks is ten cents. The total 
cost, including the value of eggs, food, and other ex- 
penses is about nine cents per pound. They will average 
one and a half pounds when eight weeks old, and often 
bring fifty cents per pound. The building contains one 
thousand chicks, and as a new brood can be put in every 
ten weeks, it will hold five thousand in a year. The 
building and yards do not take up more than twenty-six 
by fifty feet of space, or less than one thirtieth of an 
acre. 

The chicks are fed on hard-boiled eggs the second day, 
no food being given them the first day. Then milk and 
bread are allowed. On the fourth day they are fed on a 
mixture of one part corn meal, one part bran, and 
one part middlings, with a small quantity of bone 
meal and ground or finely chopped meat. They are 
fed five times a day till feathered, then four meals are 



ARTIFICIAL IKCUBATIOK. 77 

given. Chopped cabbage, onions, and other green food 
are supplied. Skimmed milk may be used in the food, 
which should always be scalded or cooked. Plenty of 
water, gravel and dry earth are kept before them, a few 
screenings being scattered in the dirt to induce them to 
scratch. In giving water never allow them to become 




Fig. 46.— INTERIOR OP BROODER BOX. 

Showing hot- water pipes and cold-air pipes. 

wet, as dampness is fatal. Avoid bottom heat in a brooder, 
as it causes leg weakness. It is always better to have too 
much heat in the brooder than too little, but the reverse 
is the case with an incubator. 

A light, sandy soil is best for chicks. Hence, poor 




Fig. 47.— TOP OF BROODER BOX. 

Showing one of the brooder tables, and one space with table removed to> 
show hot-air tube. 



and unproductive locations can be thus used with advan- 
tage. Chicks require unceasing care, but by raising 
them in large numbers, labor maybe economized. They 
need no care at night, other than to keep up the fire, 
which may be arranged so as to give sufficient heat till 
morning. They should be fed very early and late* 



78 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



When ready for market correspond with a reliable com- 
mission merchant before shipping. 

We have two or three large broiler establishments here. 
In one case two young ladies are hatching several thou- 
sand chicks annually, and they find it very profitable. 



Fig. 48.— GROUND PLAN OF BUILDING. 

Showing brooders, stove, and water-barrel. 

As stated, nearly all the failures come from the eggs, and 
rot the incubators, and until poultrymen realize this fact 
t aey will meet with disappointment. The loss does not 
exceed seven per cent, and that includes the weak chicks 
and all that die by accident. No gapes or lice effect 
them, as everything is kept very clean. As to what may 




Fig. 49. — STOVE, WATER BARREL, AND END OF BROODER BOX. 

be expected it may be stated that if fifty chicks are mar- 
keted from every one hundred eggs used, the result will 
be satisfactory, but this includes loss of bad eggs, dead 
chicks, and other causes. The chicks grow faster than 
when with hens, as they receive better care and can be 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION". 



79 



counted at any time. They are safe from all enemies. 
My advice to beginners is to begin with, a small incubator, 
and experiment the first year. Experience will be the best 
teacher. Do not expect too much, and do not expect to 




Fig. 50. — BROODER HOUSE, WITH YARDS OMITTED. 



raise chicks without work. Watching, care, and labor 
are essentials. No incubator or brooder, however well 
regulated, can be trusted. They are treacherous. Bat 
they will return a handsome profit if properly managed. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

PREPARING FOR MARKET. 

FATTENING POULTRY. 

No fowl over two years old should be kept in the 
poultry -yard except for some special reason. An extra 
good mother or a finely feathered bird that is desirable 
as a breeder may be preserved until ten years old with 
advantage, or at least so long as she is serviceable. But 
ordinary hens and cocks should be fattened at the end 
of the second year for market. When there is a room 
or shed that can be closed, the fowls may be confined 
there. The floor should be covered with two or three 
inches of fine sawdust, dry earth, sifted coal-ashes, or 
clean sand. The food should be given four times a 
day, and clean water be always before the fowls. A 
dozen or more fowls may be put at once in each apart- 
ment. One of the best foods for rapid fattening, for 
producing well-flavored flesh and rich fat, is buckwheat 
meal, mixed with sweet skimmed milk, into a thick 
mush. A teaspoonful of salt should be stirred in the 
food for a dozen fowls. Two weeks' feeding is sufficient 
to fatten the fowls, when they should be shipped for 
sale without delay and other lots put up for feeding. If 
the fattening-coop is kept dark and cool, as it should 
be, the fowls will fatten all the quicker for it. 



WHEN TO MARKET. 

Poultry which it is not intended to winter should be 
fattened before really severe weather comes on; other- 
(80) 



PRE°ARING FOR MARKET. 81 

wise money will be lost by them. They will barely hold 
their own in December on feed which caused them to 
increase rapidly in weight a month earlier. Those who 
have . watched the market know that autumn prices 
usually are highest a little before and a little after 
Thanksgiving, say about the middle of November and 
soon after the first of December. The reason is that 
those who are fattening fowls keep them back for a 
short time before Thanksgiving-day and before Christ- 
mas-time, in order to get them in prime order for sale at 
those times. The result is usually an over-stocked mar« 
ket and plenty of cheap poultry. Soon after the first 
of January prices go up again; and well they may, for 
one or two month s* feed has been consumed and very 
little weight added. 

Capons grow rapidly, and their growth takes up the 
food, so that we have to wait until growth stops before 
they fatten. It is well, therefore, that this delicious 
class of poultry should not make its appearance before 
the first of February, when the game-laws prohibit ven- 
ison, quail, and other choice game from being exposed 
for sale. At this time, consequently, fat capons and 
pullets meet a good market, and even during Lent, 
when a considerable portion of the Christian world ab* 
stain from meats, there is a sharp demand for the higlu 
est-prized meats to grace the table of the rich on Sun- 
days. It is therefore well to have fine capons ready to 
supply this demand. 



DRESSING AND SHIPPING. 

The directions sent to their customers by Messrs. E. 
& 0. Ward, 279 Washington Street, one of the oldest 
commission houses in New York City, though very 
6 



tf2 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

brief and concise, give the results of an extensive expe- 
rience and present all the essential points in dressing 
and shipping for that market. They say: "To insure 
highest market prices for poultry, they must be well 
fattened; crops empty when killed; nicely and well 
picked and skin not broken or torn; thoroughly cooled, 
but not frozen. Pack in boxes with a layer of clean 
straw (rye-straw the best) between the layers of poultry, 
in the same posture in which they roost. Mark each 
box, specifying what it contains. Send invoice by 
mail. Ship to reach us about the middle of the week 
— should never reach us so late in the week as on Satur- 
day. 

" There is the greatest demand for fine and fat turkeys 
for Thanksgiving; for prime and nice geese for Christ- 
mas; for extra large and nice turkeys for New-Year's- 
day. On all these occasions shipments should reach us 
two to five days in advance. If you cannot find any 
profit in sending poultry of prime quality and well pre- 
pared, you need not look for any in that of ordinary or 
poor qualities." 

An ordinance adopted by the Board of Aldermen of 
New York City, and approved by the Mayor, is as fol- 
lows: 

" Section 1. That no turkeys or chickens be offered 
for sale in the city unless the crops of such turkeys and 
chickens are free from food or other substance and 
shrunken close to their bodies. That all fowls exposed 
for sale in violation of this ordinance shall be seized and 
condemned; such of them as shall be tainted shall, upon 
examination, be destroyed, and the rest which are fit 
for food shall be used in the public institutions in the 
city. 

" Section" 2. Every person exposing for sale any 
chicken or turkey in contravention of this ordinance 



PREPARING FOR MARKET. 83 

shall be liable to a penalty of five dollars for each chicken 
or turkey so exposed for sale." 

This ordinance took effect the first day of October, 
1882. 



DRESSING POULTRY — THE NEW ENGLAND METHOD. 

While poultry for some markets is rarely, if ever, 
drawn, that for the Boston and other New England 
markets — at least that of the better class — always has 
the entrails drawn when the birds are killed. There is 
something in favor of both methods. In the former, 
no air being admitted into the cavity of the body, it 
keeps in good condition much longer than it would if 
opened. On the other hand, if the poultry is kept too 
long there is danger that any food which may be in the 
crop, etc., may ferment, even if nothing worse takes 
place, and impregnate the flesh unpleasantly. A poul- 
try-raiser of Ayer, Mass., gives the following direc- 
tions: 

"First catch the chickens. Slide your hands care- 
fully among their legs until you can grasp the desired 
one; hold quite still until the neck is grasped. Cut the 
throat near the under side of the bill quite deeply; then 
with the right hand upon the legs hold the wings over 
the back to avoid fluttering. Always drain the blood 
into the chicken's pail. If the fowl is wanted for im- 
mediate use, scald it for about half a minute, being care- 
ful to get the tail and wings under. Take out and strip 
the legs quickly from the feet towards the head. Hold 
a handful of feathers in the hand, pushing the feathers 
from tail to head. Scald three minutes in three quarts 
of water. Make a small slit behind and on the side of 
the crop, one chick after the other. Then take out en- 
trails and crop and windpipe, carefully removing the 



84 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

liver from the gall. Take the gizzard to the pail and 
open and skin with another knife. Cut off the head and 
legs, putting these in a pile. When cold, cut them up 
and put them into the pail for your hens. This refuse 
thus disposed of is worth at least one cent per fowl. By 
scalding one can dress about six in an hour, while dry 
picking is much slower." 



SAVE THE FEATHERS — FEATHER-BONE. 

Few persons are aware that the coarse wing-feathers 
of turkeys and ducks, which cannot be used for dusters, 
and are generally a nuisance about the farm-yard, are of 
any value. Large poultry-raisers especially will be glad 
to learn that a recent invention of Mr. E. K. Warren 
of Michigan has created a demand for these hitherto 
worthless feathers, and that a company is now manu- 
facturing, out of the quills of feathers, an excellent 
substitute for whalebone, which, by the way, is becom- 
ing scarce and dear. 

The feathers are first stripped of their plumage by re- 
volving shears, then the quill is divided into halves by 
delicate machinery, after which the pith is removed to 
be used as a fertilizer. Analysis has shown it to be 
rich in nitrogen, and therefore very valuable on the 
farm. The split quills are cut into narrow shreds and 
braided into strong strands by machinery. These 
strands are in turn combined until there is produced a 
firm elastic band so strong that great power would be 
required to break it. This is sewed lengthwise many 
times through with colored threads, the feather-bone 
taking various colors from the kind of thread used. 
Though the business is only a few months old, a hun- 
dred persons are employed, and it is daily increasing. 
Patents have been secured in the leading European 



PREPARING POR MARKET. 



85 



countries, and large offers have been made for the right 
to use feather-bone in making whips, corsets, etc., but 
the inventor chooses to reserve his rights. One who 
has never given any attention to the subject scarcely 
comprehends the demand for a substitute for whalebone. 
This commodity is said to be even better for many pur- 
poses than the whalebone which it imitates. 




CHAPTEE IX. 

PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET. 

To preserve eggs for a considerable time the pores of 
the shell must be stopped up, for two reasons : to pre- 
vent the entrance of the air, and consequent spoiling of 
the contents, and to prevent the evaporation of the moist- 
ure of the egg and a drying-up of the contents. There 
are two principal methods of doing this. One is, to 
smear the surface of the eggs with something that will 
close the pores, and then pack them in some material 
that will practically exclude the air. The eggs are 
smeared with lard, coated with linseed or cotton-seed 
oil, or with shellac varnish, and are afterwards packed 
in bran, dry sand, or other similar material. These 
methods will answer for home use ; but whatever may be 
the coating material, the surface of the shells will have 
an unnatural appearance, which will prevent their ready 
sale in the markets. The only practical method to pre- 
serve eggs to be sold is to place them in milk of lime, 
which is another name for whitewash, and is prepared 
precisely as for whitewashing. The fresh eggs are 
packed in a barrel, and the lime-wash, well stirred and 
then strained, is poured over them. The eggs must be 
fresh when packed, and must be kept in a cool place. 
The eggs, according to the extent of the operations, are 
placed in barrels or in brick vats or tanks, built for the 
purpose. The dealers who handle large quantities of 
eggs have brick tanks built in a cool cellar. Any vessel, 
such as a but or barrel, will answer the purpose in a 
small way as well as the tanks. The eggs when sent to 
market are removed from the lime and thoroughly 
washed- and when dry are packed in barrels of cut straw, 
(86) 



PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET. 87 

like other eggs. In the New York market they usually 
bring about five cents a dozen less than fresh eggs. 
When packing eggs for private use, it is well to wait un- 
til September, when the fowls, having had a good run 
on the stubble fields and about grain barns, begin to 
lay plentifully, and eggs become cheap. Take perfectly 
fresh eggs, and pack them in a butter firkin, or barrel, 
and pour over them milk of lime, or thick lime- wash, 
after it has cooled, and head up the keg; or pour over 
them the strongest brine ; or smear the eggs with cotton- 
seed or linseed oil, and pack them on their broad ends 
in wheat bran in a keg, barrel, or box, very tightly, and 
each week turn it over so as to reverse the position of 
the eggs. The last method has been found to be exceed, 
ingly satisfactory. Eggs packed in dry salt will not keep 
for any great length of time. 



PACKING EGGS IN A BARREL. 

A great number of eggs are lost every year through 
imperfect packing. The salable value of a package of 
eggs is measured by that of the poorest part of it ; the 
good always have their value diminished by the bad ; 
but the poor eggs are never raised in value by the good. 
If by poor packing any part is damaged, the whole is 
depreciated together. A badly packed barrel of eggs is 
a miserable thing to look at, and worse still to handle, 
especially when the weather is warm and a very few old 
nest eggs have been packed with the good ones, which 
does sometimes happen in spite of care 1 , though not when 
only glass nest eggs, which never spoil, are used. The 
barrel should be a good one, clean, strong, and well 
hooped. At the bottom is placed three inches in depth of 
clean, dry, sweet rye or wheat straw, cut in a fodder-cut- 



88 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

ter into chaff not over half an inch in length. Upon 
this the first layer of eggs is placed on their sides, near 
together, but not touching. Some of the cut chaff is 
then scattered over the eggs, so that it falls between 
tfiem and fills the spaces. Then one inch in depth of! 
haff is laid upon them, and another layer of eggs placed 
i pon it. The number of eggs in each layer is marked 
upon a tally. An ordinary-sized flour-barrel will hold 
70 dozen. It is not well to crowd more than this into a 
barrel. The chaff and eggs are placed in alternate lay- 
ers in this way until the barrel is one-third full, when a 
piece of board is laid upon the chaff and pressed down 
carefully to make the mass solid. This is done again 
when the barrel is two-thirds full, and it is then shaken 
gently to settle the contents. When the last layer is 
packed, it is covered with three inches of chaff, which 
should project an inch or more above the chine of the 
barrel. When the head is pressed down steadily and 
slowly into its place with some shaking of the barrel, 
the eggs will be held so firmly that no shaking they may 
receive in the course of their journey will loosen them, 
and a severe jar will not break any of them. When they 
arrive at their destination they will be in good order, and 
bring the highest price, having cost no more to pack, 
except a little extra trouble, than the poorest barrel that 
may come to market. Musty or damp straw, or poor 
grain, will give a scent and flavor to the eggs which will 
injure them, notwithstanding it is generally supposed 
that an egg-shell is impervious to such influence. Cut 
wheat or oat straw is the best packing, wheat or oat chaff 
is the next ; good sound oats are a good but expensive 
packing ; hay is very poor material, and buckwheat bran 
the worst, as it so readily heats. When the barrel is 
packed, the number of eggs in it should be plainly marked 
upon the head. 



PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET. 



89 



PACKING EGGS FOR WINTER. 

Of the various methods practised for preserving 
eggs for winter use, oue of the most effective is that 
employed by the dealers who buy when the supply is 
large and prices low. This is as follows: Brick vats, 




Fig, 51..— V4.T FOS PICKLING 3GGS. 

or wooden tanks, are constructed in cool dry cellars, 
partly sunk below the level of the floor, as in Figure 51, 
the dotted lines showing i,he portion below the ground. 
These vats and tanks, — or casks, which may be used in- 
stead, — are partly filled with a preservative mixture of 




Fig. 52.— EGG LADLE. 



thick lime-water, or milk of lime, to which are some- 
times added salt and a small quantity of cream of tar- 
tar (bi-tartrate of potash), and the eggs are placed in 
this mixture and kept covered. The eggs are placed in 
the tank by means of a peculiar dipper (Fig. 52), made 
of a round, shallow tin pan, witn a iong nandle, the -in 



90 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



being perforated to drain off the liquid. The eggs are 
lowered to near the bottom, and gently rolled out, with 
little risk of breakage. Here they remain until required 
for sale. If they were fresh when packed away, they 
will come out after three or four months so little changed 
that few persons would be able to distinguish them from 
fresh ones. When wanted for sale they are taken out of 
the pickle with the dipper, and carefully placed in the 
crate, shown at Fig. 53. This is made of laths; but an 
open splint baaket would answer the purpose as well. 





Fig. 53.— CRATE FOR IMMERS- 
ING EGGS. 



Fig. 54.— TUB FOR DRAINING 
THE EGGS. 



A large low tub, as half a hogshead, is provided, and 
two boards are placed across the top, as seen in Fig. 54. 
The crate of eggs is placed upon the boards, and water 
is run through it until all perceptible traces of lime are 
removed. In this method of preservation there is noth- 
ing that may not be done in a small way, and with any 
substituted apparatus which will answer the purpose. 
One thing is imperative—the eggs must be fresh when 
packed, or they cannot be kept in a good condition for 
several months. 



PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET. 91 

THE MARKET FOR POULTRY AND EGGS. 

The magnitude of this most important branch of ag- 
riculture is little appreciated by the casual reader, yet 
the millions of dollars represented in the annual product 
of poultry and eggs go far toward making up the farm- 
ers' profits of the year. In an investigation made not 
long ago by American Agriculturist, it was brought out 
that there is a permanent investment in this industry of 
about $340,000,000, comparing very favorably with some 
of the great cereals, and wdth various branches of live 
stock. A rapid growth has been made in recent years, 
particularly since the date of the last federal census, 
from which the figures of poultry and egg product were 
taken. Inasmuch as the census includes only poultry 
on farms, the business is really very much greater than 
indicated, counting in towns and villages. 

By the census of 1890, there were 259,000,000 fowls, 
11,000,000 turkeys, 8,410,000 geese, 7,544,000 ducks, in 
the United States, and the annual product of eggs was 
819,728,000 dozen. 

The production of poultry yards is all wanted at home, 
although exports of eggs, small at the best, have within 
the past year or so exceeded the imports. Practically 
no poultry is shipped abroad. The import movement 
is remarkable. Up to the imposition, in 1890, of a tariff 
of five cents per dozen, the foreign egg imports, chiefly 
from Canada, were enormous, approximating sixteen 
million dozen annually. The five cent dutv cut imports 
rapidly, and they were less than two million dozen in 
1894, increasing considerably the next year under a 
lower rate of three cents per dozen, but proving unim- 
portant recently. The 1897 tariff resulted in a restora- 
tion of the old rate of five cents. 



92 



PKOFITS IK POUl/THY. 



FOREIGN EGG TRADE, YEAR ENDED JUNE 30. 





Exports. 


Imports. 




Dozens. 


Av. value. 


Dozens. 


Av. value. 


Duty. 


1897 


1,500,183 


13.9 cts. 


579,681 


8.2 cts. 


3 cts. 


1896 


328,485 


14.6 


947,132 


9.3 


3 


1895 


151,007 


16.7 


2,705,502 


11.7 


3 


1894 


163,061 


16.1 


1,791,430 


11.1 


5 


1893 


143,489 


23.1 


3,318,011 


11.8 


5 


1892 


183,063 


17.4 


4,188,492 


12.4 


5 


1891 


363,116 


17.6 


8,233,043 


10.8 


5 


1890 


380,884 


15.4 


15,062,796 


13.7 


free 


1889 


' 548,750 


13.8 


15,918,809 


15.2 


" 


1888 


419,701 


16.0 


15,642,861 


14.8 


H 


1887 


372,772 


16.3 


13,936,054 


14.1 


it 


1886 


252,202 


18.2 


16,092,583 


13.5 


it 


1885 


240,768 


21.5 


16,098,450 


15.4 


a 


1884 


295,484 


22.0 


16,487,204 


16.2 


tt 


1883 


360,023 


20.8 


15,279,065 


17.4 


H 



EGG MOVEMENT AND MARKET: RECEIPTS AND PRICES AT LEADING 

POINTS. 





New York. 


Chicago. 


B 


>ston. 






Rec'pts 


Prices (in cents) 


Rec'pts 


Price 


s (in 


cents) 


Prices 


(in cents) 




Mil doz 


Apr.l Sept.l 


Dec.l 


Mil doz 


Apr. 1 Sept. 


1 Dec. 1 


Apr.l Sept I Dec.l 


1897 


83.1 


11 19 


25 


*44.7 


9* 


13* 


19 


14 


23 


32 


1896 


77.8 


12* 18 


27 


69.0 


10i 


11* 


22 


16 


20 


33 


1895 


68.5 


14* 17 


27 


64.6 


12 


13 


20 


15 


23 


28 


1894 


69.7 


12 19 


27 


63.2 


10 


15 


21 


13 


22 


30 


1893 


63.4 


16 18 


28 


51.9 


14* 


14 


21 


18 


22 


30 . 


1892 


60.7 


13* 22 


32 


64.6 


13 


17* 


24 


15 


26 


35 


1891 


56.0 


20 19* 


29J 


41.8 


17* 


16* 


26 


22 


23 


35 


1890 


51.5 


17 24 


32 


44.3 


14 


16* 


25 


18 


24 


35 


1889 




14* 16* 


29 


30.6 


10* 


14* 


24 


15 


22 


32 


1888 




22 20* 


26 


18.7 


14 


16 


22 


21 


21 


30 


1887 




13* 17* 


26 


13.5 








16 


21 


30 


1886 




13 17 


26 


12.9 








14* 


18 


29 


1885 




15* 16 


28 


11.4 








17 


18 


28 


1884 


25.6 


23 19 


29 










24 


20 


29 


1883 


21.0 


20 23* 


31* 










21 


24 


32 



*The year 1897 incomplete; express receipts missing, 
include both freight and express receipts. 



Earlier years 



CHAPTER X. 
CAPONIZING— HOW IT IS DONE. 

Strange as it may seem, we have met with a number 
of ordinarily intelligent persons who supposed a capon 
to belong to a distinct race of fowls, as do Games, Ban- 
tams, etc. For fear that others may have a similar no- 
tion, it may be well to say that a capon is a castrated fowl. 
It bears the same relation to other male fowls that an 
ox does to a bull, and may be produced from any breed 
of fowls. A capon brings in market 50 per cent more 
than an ordinary fowl, and often double the price of a 
common male bird ; besides, a capon will reach double 
the weight of a common fowl at the same age. As there 
is no difficulty whatever in caponizing, and the instru- 
ments cost very little, the practice might become very 
general. 

Capon raising is a profitable branch of poultry culture 
which is not likely to be over done. The art of capon- 
izing is easily learned. A neighbor of the writer learned 
to practice it a few years ago, and last year raised a large 
number of these delicious fowls. He informed me that 
he lost not more than two per cent, and that there is no 
need of losing any if the birds are empty of food, and 
the operator has sufficient light to do his work well. 
Good fat capons will bring fifty per cent more per pound 
than other fowls will sell for, and very large capons much 
more than that. The conditions for success are the pos- 
session of hens of a large breed, and the use of judicious 
crosses to produce quick growth with hardiness of con- 
stitution and aptitude to lay on flesh. 

A poultry producer of large experience says : " Hav 
ing practiced the operation for several years, the write* 
(93) 



94 PROFITS II* POULTRY. 

can truly say that by using no more care, and with 
no more skill, than is needed in operating upon a 
male pig, not more than one out of 30 or 40 fowls need 
be lost. For several years the writer has operated on 
from 12 to 30 fowls each year, and the loss during that 
time has not been more than five or six birds in all. 
The operation is best performed upon chickens about 3 
months old, although it will succeed, if carefully done, 




Fig. 55.— CAPONIZING TABLE. 

with the majority of fowls when they are 10 or 12 months 
old. As with many other operations, this is one that 
can be learned most readily by seeing it done, and we 
advise those who would undertake it to procure instruc- 
tion wherever it is available. Still, if one has a little 
confidence, he will meet with success if the directions 
here given are carefully followed. In the first place, a 
table is needed in which a few screw-eyes are inserted 



CAPONIZING — HOW IT IS DOKE. 95 

at convenient places ; these are furnished with broad 
tapes, by which the bird is securely held during the 
operation. The best plan for a novice is to kill a bird 
and operate upon that first, in order to learn the posi- 
tion of the parts. Lay the dead bird upon the table, 
dispose it as hereafter described, and then place the 
screw-eyes where they would be needed to secure a live 
fowl. 

" One or two will be required to hold the wings, and 
one for each leg ; six will be all that will ever be neces- 
sary. Place the bird upon the table and fasten it down 
upon its left side, as shown at Fig. 55, where the rings 
and tapes are seen. The spot where the opening is to be 
made is shown by the x. Here the feathers are plucked, 



Fig. 56.— spring hook. Fig. 57.— hook. 

and an opening is made through the skin with a pair of 
shart-pointed, long-bladed scissors. We have found 
these better than a knife. The skin is drawn to one side 
and an opening is made with the scissors between the 
last two ribs for an inch and a half in length, great care 
being taken not to wound the intestines. The ribs are 
then separated by the spring hook (Fig. 56), so as to ex- 
pose the inside. The intestines are gently moved out of 
the way with the handle of a teaspoon, and the glands 
or testicles will be seen attached to the back. The tissue 
which covers them is torn open with the hook (Fig. 57) 
aided by the tweezers (Fig. 58). 

" The gland is then grasped with the forceps (Fig. 59) 
and the cord is held by the tweezers. The gland is then 



95 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

twisted off by turning the forceps ; and when this has 
been done, the other one is removed in the same way. 
Care must be taken not to injure the blood-vessel which 
is connected with the organs, as this is the only seat of 
danger in the operation, and its rupture will generally 
be fatal. The hook is then removed, and if the skin 
has been drawn backward at the outset it will now slip 




Fig 58.— TWEEZERS. 

forward and cover the inner skin which covers the intes- 
tines, and close the opening. No stitching is needed. 
A few feathers are drawn together on each side of the 
opening and plastered down upon the skin with the blood, 
where they will dry and form the best possible covering 
to the wound, which will begin to heal at once. The 
bird should be fed with a very little soft bread and milk 
for a few days after the operation, but should have 




Fig. 59.— forceps. 



plenty of water. For two nights and one day before the 
operation no food nor water should be given to the birds ; 
this will greatly facilitate the work and reduce the 
chances of loss. The operation, after a few successful 
trials, may be performed in less than one minute, and by 
the use of the rings and tapes, no assistance is needed. 
Capons may be made to earn their food by fostering 
young chicks, to which business they take very kindly. 



CAPOHIZING — HOW IT IS DONE. 



9? 



To bring them to their full and most profitable size, 
they should be kept until the second year. By giving 
them corn-meal steeped in warm milk, and providing a 
warm house, they will grow during the whole winter, 
and their flesh will become very white, sweet, and juicy. 
A good capon of one of the large breeds will weigh 12 
to 15 pounds at 22 months old, and will bring at the 
holiday season $2.50 to $3 each." 




CHAPTER XL 

POULTRY-KEEPING AS A BUSINESS. 

One newspaper correspondent asks how many fowls 
will support a family of six persons, as though it was a 
matter of figures, and only necessary to procure a certain 
number of fowls and a house, and start them laying 
eggs and producing chickens to secure a permanent in- 
come. Now it is quite sate to say that any person who 
knows so little about the trouble and risks of poultry- 
keeping as this would fail in it and lose his money, un- 
less he should start with a dozen or two fowls, and go 
through an apprenticeship to the business. For a cer- 
tain class of persons poultry-keeping is a very appro- 
priate business, and may be made profitable. Those 
who are possessed of plenty of patience and persever- 
ance, kindness and gentleness of disposition, a scru- 
pulous love of order and cleanliness, a habit of close 
observation and quick perception, and a ready tact in 
finding out the cause when anything goes wrong, and 
in quickly remedying it, will generally succeed in keep- 
ing poultry, while those not so endowed will generally 
fail, and should never attempt it. Again, one must be 
able to justly appreciate either the difficulties or ad- 
vantages of his location, such as the character of the 
land and its surroundings, the supply of food and the 
available markets. It would be folly to keep fowls on 
the borders of a forest or the margin of a swamp, on 
account of the vermin which such places shelter ; it 
would be a great advantage to be located near a number 
of summer boarding-houses, where there is a good de- 
mand for eggs and chickens, or near a large city, where 
early plump chickens sell sometimes for 75 cents a 
(98) 



POULTRY-KEEPING AS A BUSINESS. 99 

pound, and where cheap food in the shape of various 
kinds of offal can be proem ed. A want of knowledge 
how to seize upon all the advantages that may offer, or 
to avoid the difficulties presented, will be fatal to suc- 
cess. Upon the character of the ground will depend 
greatly the kind of buildings needed. Buildings suit- 
able for flocks of poultry kept for business and profit, 
where the available ground is of small extent, are shown 
in other chapters. The crops must be raised for food 
or shelter for the chickens, and to encourage the presence 
of insects, upon which the young chicks may feed. 
Sheltered by the rows of corn-stalks, or the stalks of rye 
or potatoes, the chicks are safe from hawks, which w r ill 
not swoop down upon them except in clear ground. 
The coops are kept in or near this plot, being moved 
daily to fresh ground. The chickens are kept busy 
scratching in the loose ground, and there are few 
potatoes raised but what are scratched out and eaten 
by them. This furnishes them with employment and 
with some wholesome food, and it is for this purpose 
alone they are planted. If the owner of such a chicken 
farm is a gardener or florist, and his wife manages the 
poultry part of the business, producing every year two 
or three hundred pairs of chickens for market, besides 
eggs and old fowls, success may be deemed reasonably 
certain. 



MONEY MADE BY POULTRY KEEPING. 

It seems that the interest in poultry is increasing, and 
that more poultry keepers, instead of being absorbed by 
the insane idea that every one is going to get rich by 
selling fancy eggs at $3 a dozen, or poultry ready to lay 
at $3 to $5 a piece, are giving attention to raising eggs 
in winter, broilers in spring and summer, fat pullets in 
autumn, and capons in winter. In these products th^'e 



100 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

is steady and sure profit. Of course a few will succeed 
as breeders of fancy fowls, but the number is limited, 
and they must have good judgment and perceptions, 
with persistence and perseverance. 



ADVANTAGE OF CROSS BREEDING. 

What breeds to cross is a problem which lias not yet 
been solved. Asiatic fowls were bred pure, and also 
mated with Plymouth Eocks, which itself is a recog- 
nized cross-breed, but an established one. The result 
was that the cross-breed pullets and cockerels are several 
pounds heavier than the Asiatic pure-bred ones, which 
have had equally good care, feed, and other conditions 
of growth. Those cross-bred chickens, instead of mak- 
ing a great growth of stilts at first, and subsequently 
laying a modicum of flesh and fat upon them, are 
always ready for the table, and profitable to send to 
market, after they are as large as quails. The first cross 
makes, as a rule, the greatest improvement upon the 
parent breeds, and a number of practical questions come 
up, in regard to the subject of poultry raising, with the 
view simply to produce the largest amount of meat 
which will bring the highest price in the market. For 
instance, as in the crossing of Brahmas and Plymouth 
Eocks, or any Asiatics, with games, should the hens be 
of the larger breed, or the reverse ? Which breeds 
crossed will develop the greatest early maturity ? The 
greatest weight at the most profitable ages ? The great- 
est weight and plumpness at the best market periods ? 
Which makes the best capons ? There have been a 
good many half-made efforts to solve these and kindred 
problems, but it can hardly be said that definite conclu- 
sions have been arrived at. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 

COMMON SENSE IN THE POULTRY-YARD. 

The "poultry" that everybody keeps are technically 
designated "Fowls," or "Barn-door Fowls." As a rule 
they are kept in small flocks, fed chiefly upon what no 
farmer misses. On most farms a flock of twelve to forty 
hens will pick up a living without receiving a particle 
of grain from May to October, including both months. 
Their food consists of insects, seeds, and grass or weeds ; 
they need fresh water besides. What wonder is it that 
fowls thus kept are demonstrably more profitable than 
any class of stock, or any crop on the farm? 

This is the best way to keep fowls, provided they can 
be induced to lay where their eggs can be found while 
fresh. To accomplish this a house of some kind is 
needed where the fowls may be shut in occasionally for 
a few days at a time, so as to make them roost and lay 
in convenient places. If fowls can roost in the trees, 
lay all over the farm, and "dust" themselves in the 
road, they will almost surely be healthy, lay a great 
many eggs, and keep in good condition. Besides, every 
now and then a hen will unexpectedly appear with a 
brood of ten or a dozen chicks, hatched under some bush 
where she had " stolen" her nest and done her hatching. 
That is all very well, so far as the hen is concerned, but 
no one wants it to happen. We wish the hens to lay 
and sit where we can put what eggs we please under 
them for hatching — and, what is still more important, 
we wish to be able to collect the eggs for use or for sale 
daily. A fresli egg is a joy, a delight, a good gift of 
Heaven — a pretty good egg is an abomination- An 
egg, to be fit to eat, or for sale, must be fresh bwmci * 
(101) 



102 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

perad venture, and utterly untainted with a suspicion of 
having been brooded or weathered. For this reason it 
is a most untidy thing to use natural nest-eggs. The 
nest-egg, after a while, is almost surely gathered, and of 
course is not "right/' 

The trouble about fowl-houses, even with liberal yards, 
is that fowls do not do well constantly confined. The 
number of eggs falls off, and the fowls become subject 
to disease, and especially to vermin — lice. All poultry- 
houses are liable to become thus infested, and the only 
cure and preventive is dust, and dustiness. It is best to 
provide extensive dusting-boxes — not out-of-doors some- 
where, or under a cow-shed, where the fresh winds will 
carry off the stifling dust rendered disgusting by its 
11 henny" smell ; but in the house itself, so that the at- 
mosphere of the entire establishment will become thus 
dust-laden and oppressive. Dust will settle everywhere, 
and one entering will need a white coat as much as 
does a miller. The hens will revel in the dust, however, 
and it will keep the lice down if not exterminate them. 

The hens not only enjoy it, but dust is a necessity and 
a luxury to them, just as a morning bath is to civilized 
man. The dusting-box is their toilet-table — in fact, 
bath-tub, wash-bowl and pitcher, sponge and brushes 
and soap, and it gives health and long life as surely as 
the free use of water does to human beings. 

As to feed — if fowls are confined they lose a great 
variety of food which must be, in some way, made up 
to them. When we depart from a close following after 
nature, we begin to complicate matters. Watch a hen 
as she trips picking about: now she takes a bit of grass 
or other greens ; now she strips the seeds out of the 
seed-pod of some weed ; now she makes a vigorous dive 
after an insect, and so on all day she scratches and for- 
ages. So a variety is essential to the health of fowls in 
confinement. They need grain and soft food., chopped 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 103 

scraps, or other flesh diet, and some grass, or other 
greens which they like — such as lettuce or cabbages. 
They must have plastering, oyster-shells pounded fine, 
or some other source of lime, besides fresh water con- 
stantly. 

Better than all, they need an afternoon run, and g 
chance to scratch and pick in the door-yard, road, and 
barn-yard, if there be one. Here let us protest against 
hens being made use of as scavengers for picking up and 
cleaning up filth about the hack-door. There is no bet- 
ter habit for farmer folks to cultivate in regard to poul- 
try than on every occasion to drive them away from the 
kitchen door, and never to throw out anything that they 
can eat anywhere near the house. The practice of hav- 
ing a slop-hole — or spot near the back door where dish- 
water and other " slops," containing more or less that 
hens will eat, are thrown — is a filthy one at best. All 
such water should be thrown upon the dung-hill or com- 
post heap. Here the hens may pick up many a crumb, 
and the manure will be greatly benefited. 

In the matter of varieties the fancy breeds are best 
let alone by any one who does not make a business or a 
pastime of poultry-keeping. It is very pleasant for a 
person who keeps but a dozen or twenty hens to have 
them of some choice breed, and to take great pains with 
them; studying into their habits, their " points," and 
all that. But few persons have either the taste or in- 
clination to be successful breeders; so, as a rule, it is best 
to keep common or mixed hens, but a full-blooded cock 
of one of the best breeds. 

For general use most persons who have had experience 
will agree that the Plymouth Kock fowls are excellent, 
and either these or the Dominiques, or one of the Asiatic 
breeds, are to be recommended if a pure breed of fowls 
is desired for eggs, broilers, capons, and fat cockerels 
and pullets. For eggs alone, the White Leghorns are 



104 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

preferable; but they are neither economical for the table, 
nor are they to be depended upon as sitters and mothers. 
It is an excellent plan to use full-blooded cocks, making 
a change, not of cocks alone, but of the breed, every two 
years. Thus a recent writer, speaking of his own practice, 
says: "A stock off Light Brahmas were bred with a 
Dorking cock two years, then with Plymouth Rock 
cocks, and now I shall probably take a Brahma cross in 
the hope of effectually eradicating the tendency to throw 
pink-legged chicks, a relic of the Dorking cross, and 
black ones, which come from the Plymouth Kocks. 
After that I shall recur to the last-named variety, as I 
find it gives me earlier and better broilers, plenty of 
eggs, and fowls always fit for the table." 



SALT IN THE RATION FOR POULTRY. 

There is a prevalent notion that salt causes the 
feathers of fowls, or perhaps of the feathered tribes in 
general, to fall out. This, we believe is well founded. 
Certainly, excess of this condiment should be avoided. 
There appears to be some connection between salt and 
feathers. Eeather-eating fowls are often cured of the 
tendency by adding salt to their food, and a small quan- 
tity of salt in the ration promotes, or is supposed to pro- 
mote, the production of the new crop of feathers at 
moul ting-time. This supposed effect may be simply the 
loosening of the old feathers. The result, as promotive 
of moulting, would be the same. Salt is a very impor- 
tant ingredient in the ration of pigeons, and where these 
birds are confined without it, they are never so thrifty. 
It is natural, then, to conclude that it is valuable in the 
food of other birds, and especially for barn-door fowls 
The earlier old fowls are out of their moult and in full 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 105 

plumage, the sooner will they begin to lay in the autumn. 
Pullets usually begin to lay as soon as they are com- 
pletely plumed as adult fowls. It is worth while, there- 
fore, to encourage moulting in every way, giving them 
exercise, insect food, or fish in their ration, with ground 
bone, ground oyster-shell, and sound grain. A table- 
spoonful of fine salt in the soft feed, given daily to a 
flock of twenty hens, will be a fair allowance. Fowls do 
not depend upon this for the salt which their bodies and 
feathers contain, for either the material itself, or the 
elements of which it is composed, exist to a greater or 
less extent in almost all the food they eat and the water 
they drink; and what we do by giving them salt is simply 
to increase the supply. 



GREEN FOOD FOR FOWLS. 

Fowls cannot be kept healthy without a good range, 
or a supply of green food in their yards. An excellent 
plan is, to have a roomy yard provided for them, and 
plant it with plum or dwarf pear trees. Plum-trees are 
very little troubled by cnrculios when planted in a 
chicken-yard, and good crops of fruit are secured, bar- 
ring accidents of weather at the blooming season. The 
yard is divided into two parts; one is used for a month, 
while the other is growing up with some green crop, as 
turnips, oats, peas, rape, or mustard, which are very ac- 
ceptable to the fowls. This yard is then used, and the 
other is plowed and immediately sown. This keeps the 
ground clean, provides suitable food, and avoids most 
effectively the troublesome disease known as gapes; the 
fatal cholera is also evaded by this management; the 
health being improved, more eggs will be laid. 



106 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



CHARCOAL AND STIMULANTS. 

Poultry in domestication are not in a natural condition. 
Their diet is more or less restricted in variety, and that 
which they have is frequently of a character to fatten 
rather than to promote growth or egg-laying. This may 
be in a measure counteracted by condimental food or 
stimulants. Before such measures are taken the poultry- 
raiser should provide everything else necessary or de- 
sirable:— grain in variety, broken bones, oyster-shells or 
other form of lime, green food of some kind, cabbage or 
roots, gravel, and a dry-dusting box; besides, pure water; 
and if milk or buttermilk can be had, a trough for that 
should be provided. 

Stimulants must be regarded not as food, but as 
medicine, used sparingly, and never daily. One mess of 
stimulating food once in two or three days is enough. 

Charcoal should be a stand-by. It defends against 
disease, keeps up the tone of the system, aids digestion, 
and promotes laying. Feed it powdered, and mix it up 
with wheat bran and Indian meal. Add to this mixture a 
neaping table-spoonful of powdered Cayenne pepper for a 
dozen fowls, given every third day, or every second day 
in a cold snap, and continued for about ten days or two 
weeks, now and again, is promotive of laying and of 
health. This soft feed may be mixed with hot boiled 
potatoes, and fed either in the morning or at noon. 
Besides the hard grain fed at evening regularly, so that 
the fowls or other poultry may go to roost with full 
crops, and a little wheat scattered among leaves or straw 
to make them scratch for exercise, they will need little 
else. 




(107) 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 109 



SPECIAL FEED CROPS FOR POULTRY. 

Every poultry-breeder understands the value of hav- 
ing a variety of food, and that it is essential for the 
health of the fowls and the production of fertile eggs 
from which he can expect strong, healthy chickens. 
One can imagine the result to a community who would 
try to live exclusively on corn; yet probably nine out of 
ten who raise poultry think their duty done when they 
have scattered before them their quart of corn and gath- 
ered the eggs. This treatment may appear to fulfill all 
necessary obligations when fowls can have unrestricted 
range through the summer season, as nature seems to 
provide means for sustaining life for feathered as well 
as Human tramps. The necessity of providing corn, 
sometimes with wheat and oats for winter food, is gen- 
erally understood; but if to these were added a supply of 
the other grains and vegetables of which fowls are fond, 
we would not hear so much complaint as now of stock 
"running out" and producing nothing but scallions. 

As to the special grains, we may name buckwheat as 
one of the most valuable for the production of eggs. 
Sunflower-seeds should also be included in the bill of 
fare of all well-regulated poultry-yards. The large 
amount of oil they contain seems to be especialy valu- 
able for young, growing chickens. They also give a 
gloss and brilliancy to the feathers probably unequaled 
by any other food. Even when fed in large quantities, 
no bad effects follow, as the husk or shell must be taken 
with the meat. An experiment was tried, one winter, 
by an observing poultryman with two flocks, one of five 
pullets and a cockerel of Plymouth Eocks, the other of 
twelve pullets and a cock of Light Brahmas, these lat- 
ter having a well-appointed house, with all of the 
"modern improvements,"- — sunlight, dust-bath, etc. 



110 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

The former were in a small coop about four feet square, 
with a covered run formed by throwing cornstalks on 
some poles, and setting a hot-bed sash up against the 
south side. The food for the two coops was scalded 
Indian meal. They were both fed from the same dish, 
and in proportion according to their numbers. The 
Plymouth Eocks laid well, and gained in flesh all win- 
ter. The Brahmas " went back/' both in eggs and in 
flesh. The reason was that the former had the strip- 
pings from the cornstalks to help in the assimilation of 
their food, which the latter did not have. This proved 
conclusively that some such coarse food must be pro- 
vided if we would have the fowls thrive. Well-cured 
green cornstalks, and young, tender grass and clover 
should be provided for poultry as regularly as hay for 
other stock. 

The soft or poor heads of cabbages, stored by them- 
selves, probably are the cheapest and most easily ob- 
tained green food for poultry during winter. Two or 
three heads hung so that the fowls can easily reach 
them, around the sides of their coop, and renewed when 
necessary, will well repay the trouble. If one is going 
extensively into the raising of young chickens for an 
early market, it will pay to sow lettuce-seed in a box, 
and place it in a warm, sunny window. The young and 
tender leaves are easily grown, and will add greatly to 
the health and growth of the chickens. Onions should 
also be grown and kept for feeding. They are by many 
considered as a remedy for the chicken-cholera. If 
chopped moderately fine, they will be eagerly consumed 
by fowls. Tobacco should also be grown by every poul- 
tryman who wishes to keep his stock free from parasitic 
pests. Pull the plants before frost, and hang them in 
the barn or shed to dry. A handful of the leaves in the 
nests of sitting hens, particularly, will add a great deal 
to their comfort, and more to that of their young. It 




(Ill) 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 113 

makes no difference -whether the tobacco is ripe or not 
before pulling. Hemp-seed will be found useful for 
young and valuable chickens, but the sunflower is a 
go >d substitute, and much more cheaply raised. Pep- 
pers are a most useful condiment during the winter 
months, helping greatly in the production of eggs 
through the cold weather. A small number of plants 
of the long red variety will produce a plentiful supply, 
much cheaper and purer than the ordinary ground 
cayenne of the stores. Use them in connection with 
potatoes and meal. Set the potatoes on the stove after 
supper, and boil them until soft. Set them on again 
when the fire is started in the morning, and bring to a 
boil ; pour off the water, add in one or two chopped 
pepper-pods, and then add meal, meal and bran, or corn 
and oats ground together. Mash all together, and make 
a firm, almost crumbly, mass. This is suitable for a 
morning meal, but not for night. Beans well cooked, 
either whole or ground, will help fill up the list of foods. 
Kape-seed is easily raised, and would be useful for 
choice young chickens. Seeds of the common millet, 
golden millet, sorghum, and broom-corn will make 
a variety in the list of good cheap foods. Egyptian 
corn, a kind of sorghum, is valuable for young or 
old fowls. It is raised as easily as corn, and will pro- 
duce bountifully. Barley, rye, and oats are well known 
to be acceptable to the inhabitants of the poultry-yard. 



WINTERING FOWLS IN COLD LATITUDES. 

Extreme care with poultry is necessary in cold lati- 
tudes to prevent many frozen feet, and even great loss of 
life during the cold weather, and it not unfrequently 
happens that entire flocks are frozen to death. Hence, 



114 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

keeping fowls in winter means simply keeping them 
alive and well until the spring; eggs are hardly expected. 
First, prepare a warm place, well secured from cold 
winds and shifting snow. A corner in the stable is per- 
haps best, as the warmth of the stock in the stable is a 
great help to the chickens. But an independent fowl- 
house may be made, by digging a cellar, say eight by ten 
feet, and three feet deep. Build a sod wall three feet 
thick and five or six feet high around the excavation, 
with a door in the east and a window in the south 
side. The window should be double, with one sash at 
the outside and another on the inside of the wall. Around 
the door, build an entry or vestibule of sod, with its door 
opening outward. Plaster all these walls upon the in- 
side. The earth taken from the cellar, mixed with 
water, will answer to plaster with, and the whole can be 
done in a short time. The first coat will crack; the 
second coat should be very thin. The cover or roof may 
be made of poles and straw. If the poles are strong 
)nough, some earth should be put over the straw, to 
make the roof warmer. The perches should be made 
low, and stationary strips arranged, so that the fowls can 
find their way to the perch, even during the dark, 
stormy weather. In the second place, the feed must be 
so arranged that each fowl can both find and eat it in 
the dark. To secure this end, take a board, one foot 
wide and four feet long; around this nail four strips 
three inches wide; two of these strips should be four 
feet long and the other two fourteen inches long, so as 
to form a box four feet long by twelve inches wide and 
two inches deep. Next, cut laths into three equal 
parts, and nail them perpendicularly around this box, 
two inches apart. Secure the tops by nailing around 
the outside of a similar board to the bottom, leaving an 
opening to put in the feed. The feed should always be 
placed in this box, and the box should always be kept in 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 115 

one position, so it may be as easily found during a storm 
as on a bright day. Plenty of food, such as the fowls can 
eat, without seeing it, should always be kept in the box. 
A vessel of mi Ik- warm water should be set in the box 
each day, but removed before any ice is formed therein. 
A wire screen, or one made of slats, may be placed un- 
der the perch, to keep the fowls from walking in the 
droppings, as it is very essential that they keep their feet 
dry. When the weather is pleasant, let the chickens 
out into the fresh air awhile each day, but keep them 
out of the snow. Wheat and screenings may well be 
kept, say an inch deep, all the time at the bottom of 
the feed-box, whatever other kind of feed may be given 
extra. 



SELECTING, SELLING, ETC. 

Before a fowl is sold, a lot of the best pullets should 
be picked out, which, with the pullets kept the pre- 
vious winter, will make up the regular flock. The two- 
year-old hens should be sold in the spring, as soon as 
eggs become cheap; they sell better at that time than at 
any other. A hen has seen her best laying days when 
she has completed her second year. If eggs are the chief 
object in view, the cockerels and. surplus pullets should 
be sold as early as possible. The pullets kept for winter 
layers should be well fed and brought to maturity as 
rapidly as possible, and they will begin laying in October; 
and if they are cared for as herein advised, will lay 
steadily all winter. 



EGGS IN WINTEE. 

Winter is the very time when eggs are worth the 
most, when hens want to lay as much or more than they 



116 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

do at auy other time, and when they are not allowed to 
do so by most poultry-keepers. Z?olks think there is a 
great mystery about making hens lay in winter. There 
is none; anybody can do it; that is, the hens will lay 
if you let them. They bear a good deal of cold in the 
sunshine, and even freeze their combs and toes, and yet 
will not stop laying altogether if they can sleep warm. 
Now do not begin to plan setting up a stove in the hen- 
house, or introducing steam-pipes. Artificial heat is 
not poisonous perhaps, but very nearly so, to chickens. 
They are warm themselves, and need only to be crowded 
on their roosts, with the roosts all on one level. The ceil- 
ing of the roosting-room should be only a few feet above 
the fowls' heads, and provided with ventilation from the 
floor if possible. Give them very close quarters, with no 
draughts of cold air, and clean out under the roosts every 
morning, not excepting Sundays. The combs will then 
redden up, and eggs will be plenty on less feed than 
usual. It must not be corn, however, or only a small 
percentage of it, for this will make them too fat to lay 
well if they sleep warm. 

A capital way to arrange a hen-house for winter is to 
make a ceiling of rails about six feet above the floor, cov- 
ering the rails with salt hay, or coarse swamp hay of any 
kind. The roosts should be about three feet high above 
the floor, and movable, so that they may be kept per- 
fectly clean. For small flocks of thirty to fifty hens, it 
is little trouble to take the roosts down every morning 
when the floor is cleaned, and replace them at night. Ic 
removes from lazy fowls the temptation to sit in idlenesf 
on the roost for half the day. 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 117 



PKEVENTION AGAINST LICE. 

Almost all poultry are lousy, more or less. " A. B." 
says: good arrangements for dusting will always keep the 
lice in check. The small hen louse moves along the 
roosts and sides of the building several feet, and some- 
times annoys cattle and horses, but the trouble to them is 
quite temporary. If the fowls are free from them, they 
will leave other stock at once. Boosts ought always to be 
removable, so that they can be scraped and washed with 
kerosene. I find kerosene or crude petroleum an excel- 
lent addition to whitewash. This treatment, with a good 
dusting-box for the fowls, in which there may be occa- 
sionally thrown a pailful of wood ashes and a pound of 
flowers of sulphur, will keep lice effectually in check. 
Horses and cattle in adjoining apartments, with only 
loose board partitions separating them from the poultry- 
house, will not be seriously troubled by the vermin. 



A POULTRYMAN S CROOK. 

J. L. Cunningham, Gonzales Co., Texas, writes us: 
It is often troublesome to catch one out of a number 
of fowls in a coop. To save time and labor in such a 
case, I make use of an instrument like the one here 
figured. A small rod, three fourths of an inch in diam- 



d 



Fig. 61. — HOOK FOR CATCHING POULTRY. 

eter and three or four feet long, is provided with a fer- 
rule at one end. A stout, medium-sized wire, about one 
foot long, is bent at one end," and the long end of the 
wire inserted firmly into the ferruled end of the rod. 
Then by reaching into the coop of fowls with the rod, 
the one desired may be caught by the foot, and gently 



118 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

drawi* within reach. I do not think the above invention 
has ever been patented, and it is too good to keep. By 
its use one person may handle a coop of fowls, which 
without it would require at least two or three persons to 
accomplish. 



PASTURING POULTRY. 

The farmer whose acres are broad can enclose his gar- 
den with a fence, and let the poultry run at will, but 
villagers and suburban residents, living on small lots, 
must enclose their chickens if they desire to cultivate 
either a garden or the good will of their neighbors. 
During the spring and summer months it is necessary 
that chickens have a supply of fresh, tender, green food^ 
if kept in a healthy, growing condition. They cannot 
eat grass when it is tall enough to mow, and the refuse 
of the garden is little better than husks. A good plan 
is to pasture the chickens. Make a wire cage, put it on 
wheels having flanges, lay a track for the wheels to run 
on, and sow oats between. The frame is three feet high, 
six feet wide, and eight long. The upper part is 2 
by 2-inch pine ; the sills 2 by 4 inches. The wheels 
are sawed from 2-inch oak plank, and turn on 1-inch 
bolts. The flanges are 1-inch stuff, nailed to the 
wheels. The track is 2 by 2-inch stuff laid on the 
ground, the strips being thrown on top as the cage passes 
along. Wire half the thickness of fence wire is strong 
enough. The soil between the rails should be worked 
over, and sown with oats early in the spring and in suc- 
cessive sowings. When an inch high it will do to pas- 
ture. Have a small door in the poultry yard to match 
the one in the cage. Half an hour's pasturing each day 
will do the chickens more good than any amount of 
green stuff thrown to them. When the crop seems ex- 
hausted, let the fowls scratch it over ; then sow again. 



HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 119 



HOW TO GET LARGE BIRDS. 

Many purchasers of fine stock, or of their immediate 
descendants, fail to secure as fine birds as the seller raises, 
and are unhappy. They hear of eighteen-pound light or 
dark Brahma cocks, and twelve-pound hens of some noted 
breeder, or of mammoth bronze turkeys weighing sixty 
or more pounds to the pair. They order the eggs or 
young birds of such stock, hand them over to some ser- 
vant or neighbor, who is not skilled in breeding, feeds 
irregularly, or regularly stints them, and at the end of 
six months wonder that they have not first-class birds, 
equal to the advertisement. They think they have been 
cheated, and set down the breeder as a rogue. There 
are men, no doubt, in the poultry business who cannot be 
trusted, but there are also a large number of men who 
have brought capital, skill, and integrity to their busi- 
ness, and who would not knowingly let a poor fowl go 
from their yards. They sell, uniformly, stock true to 
name, but at so early an age that the development does 
not always answer expectations. A turkey does not get 
its full growth until the third year, but most of them are 
sold at from four to eight months. Ducks and hens are 
not fully developed until the second year, and yet most 
of them are sold under nine months old. While it is 
true that large stock is essential to the raising of large 
birds, another factor is quite as essential. This is abund- 
ant feed during the whole period of growth. The grand re- 
sults obtained by our skillful breeders are reached by care 
and feed, after they have selected 'their stock. To make 
the most of a young bird, it should be fed with a variety 
of food at least five times a day, from daylight in the 
morning until the middle of the afternoon. It is well to 
omit late feeding, to give time for digestion. Slack or 
full feed will make a difference of six pounds in the 



120 



PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 



weight of a turkey-gobbler at eight months old, which 
is the most of the difference between an ordinary and 
an extraordinary bird. Persons who buy thoroughbred 
young birds of good breeders should not expect to buy 
the skill of the breeder with his stock. That is a com- 
modity that cannot be bought for money. It can only 
be gained by daily attention to the details of poultry 
breeding. 




CHAPTER XIII. 
SOME POPULAR BREEDS. 

The agricultural interest owes much to poultry-fan- 
ciers. Those who devote their attention to fancy poul- 
try are too often misunderstood by farmers as well as 
by others. As in many other cases where people devote 
themselves to some special pursuit — or hobby, as it is 
considered — the poultry-fanciers are generally looked 
upon as enthusiasts, who simply amuse themselves, with- 
out conferring any benefit upon the public; an error 
which does the poultry-breeder great injustice. In 
nearly every farmer's yard maybe seen either some pure- 
bred or some crossed fowls that are much superior to 
the ordinary run of "barn-door" poultry. The com- 
mon fowls may weigh three pounds at maturity, and 
may lay two or three dozen of eggs in the summer, and 
none in the winter. But the improved fowls, now kept 
by the majority of farmers, will reach an average weight 
of four pounds, and produce eggs, if not in the winter, 
at least very early in the spring, and continue late in the 
fall. The product of flesh and eggs is at least doubled. 
This result is due to the labors of poultry-fanciers, who 
have ransacked the world for new varieties, until pei v 
haps there are none worth having that are not now to 
be found in this country. 

No one can become a successful breeder of poultry — 
indeed one can hardly succeed in anything — unless he 
is an enthusiast; therefore enthusiasm, when usefully 
directed, is something to be commended rather than 
blamed. The profit derived by small farmers from 
poultry is usually an important item in their income. 

We therefore advocate the improvement of poultry 
(121) 



122 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

by encouraging those who make it the business of their 
lives. 

It is especially advisable that farmers should at least 
procure pure-bred cocks or cockerels for breeders, yet 
such a thing is the exception rather than the rule. In 
regard to this matter, Mr. Evans says: Many of the 
farmers can readily realize that it pays to use pure-bred 
bulls, or pure-bred rams, or pure-bred boars in their 
herds and flocks of cows, sheep, and swine; but they do 
not seem to realize that the same rule holds good with 
poultry, and also that the benefits are secured very 
quickly. This infusion of pure-bred blood amongst a 
flock of good common hens is sure to be of great benefit, 
as the constitutional vigor of the common stock intensi- 
fies the good qualities derived from the thoroughbreds, 
producing in point of early maturity, size, and laying 
qualities something both desirable and profitable, 
though these half-bloods cannot with anything like uni- 
formity transmit thesB improved qualities to their off- 
spring. First-class pure-bred cockerels can be bought at 
a moderate figure, and we do not see how farmers can 
afford to use the common ones in preference, no matter 
how good they may be. If large size is most desired, 
the Asiatics will be found to answer well, while for laying 
qualities principally we commend the Leghorns. 

The popular breeds of the day may be classed among 
either the Asiatic, European, or American varieties. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ASIATIC BREEDS. 

The iJrahmas, Cochins, and Langshans, which com- 
prise the standard Asiatic breeds, have many desirable 
qualities. They are docile, not mischievous; fair layers, 
persistent sitters, and good mothers. As a class, there 
is little difference between the varieties; what may be 
said of one will generally apply to the others, the color 
of plumage being the chief point of preference that de- 
cides a choice. 



LIGHT BRAHMAS. 

The Light Brahma is now well known amongst 
breeders and fanciers, but is not yet nearly so popular 
amongst farmers, and those who rear poultry for mar- 
ket, as it should be. The small head, the lofty carriage, 
the broad full breast, the deep round body, the short, 
stout, well-feathered legs, — all mark the high-bred bird, 
and one producing a great amount of flesh with the least 
offal. This is one distinguishing feature of the Brahma 
fowl which renders it a profitable breed for the farmer. 
No other bird excels it as a winter layer; and as it is a 
good mother, the plentiful fluff about it serving to keep 
the chicks warm in the coldest weather, and as the chicks 
are hardy, it is easy to have very early birds. The 
young birds, as broilers, are remarkably juicy, well- 
flavored, and tender; and the young cockerels of four to 
six months, weighing, as they easily do, six to eight 
pounds, make most excellent roasters. As with all high- 
bred, pure races, the half-breed crosses of these, upon 
(123) 



124 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

common stock, are nearly as good as the pure breed. 
To introduce one young cock for every twenty-five com- 
mon hens would be to easily double the value of the 
farmer's yearly product. 

From the time of its first introduction to American 
poultry-breeders, the breed has been held in the highest 
esteem. Other varieties have come up, the Plymouth 
Hock and Wyandottes, as market birds, and Leghorns in 
variety as egg-producers; still the Light Brahma has held 
its own as a family fowl among the lovers of choice poultry. 
Although quiet and unassuming in style, it has great 
dignity of carriage, and is really a majestic fowl. In 
excellent qualities for family use, it is hardly approached 
by any other. Its flesh is juicy and tender ; and as it 
puts on flesh very fast, it remains a "chicken" until 
fully grown. The excellence of the hens as layers de- 
pends greatly on how they were bred, for some families 
are extraordinary egg-producers taken in comparison 
with other large-bodied fowls. They are layers of large, 
buff-colored eggs, which are very rich, and great favorites 
in the market. In disposition they are very kind and 
quiet. An ordinary picket-fence, three feet high, will 
restrain them ; and if handled gently, they can be picked 
up at any time. The plumage is white with black points. 
The tail is black, as are also the flight feathers of the 
wings, which are not discernible when the wings are 
folded. There is also a fine penciling of black in the 
neck. It has a " pea/' or triple comb, which, being 
small and set close to the head, is proof against all or- 
diuary frost. They are easy to rear, very hardy, quick 
growers, and make very heavy fowls. On a well-kept 
lawn, there is nothing handsomer than a flock of Light 
Brahmas. 

It is an interesting fact in connection with this breed 
that it is the only one of the Asiatic breeds not received 
through England. The original birds were brought 




Fig. 62. — LIGHT BRAHMA COCK. 



(125) 



ASIATIC BREEDS. 127 

6y a sailor to New York, obtained by a Connecticut 
breeder, the late Virgil Cornish of Hartford, bred and 
brought out by him. 



DARK BRAHMAS. 

In an article which recently appeared in a poultry 
journal, the writer says: " But few of the breeders are 
aware of the fact that this beautiful breed was perfected 
in the hands of our English breeders, out of a brood of 
chickens that were bred by mating a Black-red Shanghai 
cock with a Gray Shanghai (or, as then called, Chitegong) 
hen. But this is the fact. They were sent to England 
by an American breeder. 

" There was no more heard from them, and the word 
Dark Brahmas, as a distinct breed of fowls, was not 
known in America till 1865, when the first importa- 
tion was made. The assertion that the Dark and Light 
Brahmas were bred from the same original stock with- 
out crossing is not true. The first imported ones came 
with far more single-combs than Pea-combs. The breeding 
of Pea Comb Brahmas to Partridge Cochins produced new 
blood; and later we began to get them of less Cochin 
shape and in every way improved. Such was the early 
history of the breed. 

" It is not a very flattering thought for home industry 
that we must send the crude material to a foreign 
country to be woven into a web of cloth, or perfected 
into a breed, and receive the same as a thoroughbred in 
only about a dozen years afterward. Be that as it may, 
our English brothers in this case have made for us a fine 
breed, and deserve much praise, and I for one would 
acknowledge the worth, and give the credit where it 
belongs. 

" The earlier specimens were, more or less, bronzed 



128 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

iu the wing-coloring of the cocks, and the females 
bronze-gray in the ground-color, breeding more closely 
to the Partridge Cochin; but the introduction of Light 
Brahma cocks as an occasional cross secured the steel- 
gray color, which has become the standard color of 
America. These crosses have been so frequent that the 
reversion in color is prone to light, and we find English 
breeders indulging in the use of Partridge Cochin hens, 
occasionally, to retain the distinct barring of the feather 
in the females. 

" My taste and knowledge of the breeds lead me to 
say that next to the Light Brahmas, among the Asiatics, 
the Dark Brahma must take rank in merit; yet I am 
compelled to acknowledge that the breed is fourth in 
the taste and demand of the public." 



THE COCHINS. 

The Cochin breed of fowls was introduced into this 
country about the year 1847, and to this was mainly due 
the celebrated " poultry mania" long to be remembered 
by breeders of domestic fowls. Men became almost wild 
after Partridge Cochins, and were willing to spend a 
small fortune for a trio of fine birds. The neck-hackles 
of the hens are bright gold, striped with black, the rest 
of the body being light brown, penciled with a darker 
shade of the same color. The hackles of the Partridge 
Cochin cock are bright-red, striped with black, the back 
being dark-red, with a bar of metallic green upon the 
wings. The breast and under part of the body are pure 
black. Some of the points of merit, as claimed by the 
breeders of these fowls, are as follows: they are hardier 
than any other breeds, except the Brahmas, and will 
thrive under conditions where most others would perish. 




(129) 



ASIATIC BREEDS. 131 

They are of large size, with a very gentle disposition, 
and the ease with which the Cochins are kept in confine- 
ment makes them favorites with many poultry-raisers. 
When full-grown the weight ranges from ten to fifteen 
pounds; they are too heavy to fly, and a fence two feet 
high will confine them. As sitters and mothers the 
Lens are not surpassed, and are prolific layers, especially 
}n winter, when eggs are scarce. The chickens grow 
rapidly, and at three months are large enough for eating. 

It is true, they have some defects. The flesh is in- 
ferior, especially of old birds. The inclination to sit 
sometimes interferes with their greatest usefulness. This 
tendency is developed by over-feeding. As a breed the 
Cochins are most useful to supply the demands of a fam- 
ily for early chickens and a plenty of large, rich eggs. 
If the Cochins had done nothing more than to awaken 
a general interest in poultry-breeding, their introduction 
would still have been of benefit. 

Besides the Partridge, which may be either of the 
single or Pea-comb variety, the principal sub-varieties of 
the Cochins are the White, Buff, and Black. With 
those who breed the White variety every feather must 
be pure, otherwise the fowl is looked upon with disfavor. 
The Bufl Cochins may be of any shade, but the birds in 
a flock must correspond in color. With the Blacks, it is 
of the utmost importance that every feather should be 
solid black. In other respects than plumage, the sev- 
eral varieties of Cochins are very similar. 



THE LANGSHAN FOWLS. 

The Langshans are natives of the extreme northern 
part of China, where most of the fowls, both wild and 
domestic, are black, and where the winters are very 



132 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



severe. Mr. 0. W. Gedney, of Bromley, Kent, Eng' 
land, resided for some years in that country, and pro- 
fesses to be well acquainted with the habits and character 
of these fowls, and we depend upon him for most of the 
information we have in regard to them in their native 




Fig. 64. — LANGSHAN COCK. 



country. They are entirely distinct from the Black 
Cochin, and their native home is 1000 miles distant 
from Oochin-Ohina, whence the latter birds have been 
brought. These birds are erect in carriage, have larger 
combs, more feathered tails than the Black Cochins, an> 




Fig. 65.— pait, of buff cochins. 



(133) 



ASIATIC BREEDS. 135 

are more active, hardy, and vigorous. A cockerel of 
this breed, seven months old, will weigh, if fattened, ten 
to twelve pounds; and a pullet of the same age, eight to 
nine pounds; the flesh is well-flavored and tender, and 
thickly laid upon the breast, the skin is clear white and 
transparent, and the bone very light and fine. The 
legs are of a bright slate color, and pink between the 
toes, and the plumage black with a vivid beetle-green 
reflection. These birds were first introduced into Eng- 
land in 1872 by an officer of the British army, Major 
Croad, of Sussex, who received them directly from a 
relative living in the northern part of China. Since 
then a second importation has been received in England, 
and Mr. Gedney states that the breed has been used to 
improve the Black Cochins. Since the opening of tho 
Suez Canal, by which the voyage from China has been 
much shortened, the importation of fowls from that dis- 
tant part of the world has been rendered much easier. 
Mr. Gedney sums up the merits of these fowls as fol- 
lows: Extreme hardiness, rapid growth, great size com- 
bined with small bone, exquisitely white skin and flesh 
of the same purity of color, full breast, delicacy of flavor, 
and possessing none of that dryness so common to most 
of the large breeds. As prolific winter layers of large 
rich eggs, the Langshan hens will hold their own against 
all comers, whilst they lack that intense desire to sit 
which is so essentially a characteristic of the Cochin. In 
short, he considers that they " are the finest and most 
practically useful birds ever brought to England." 

The Langshans were admitted to the American Stand- 
ard of Excellence by the American Poultry Association 
at the meeting held at Worcester, Mass., 1883. 



CHAPTEK XVc 
EUROPEAN BREEDS. 

DORKINGS. 

Speaking of this breed, a well-known authority says: 
Looking back into the dim past, to find any record of 
any pure-bred fowls is almost useless. But few peculiari- 
ties were noted in ancient records; perhaps the Dorking 
and Polish fowls are the only ones that can claim an} 
great antiquity. In ancient paintings hens with crests 
are often seen resembling our Polish birds, and from 
which the latter are probably descended; and Columella, 
an old Roman writer, gives directions for the selecting 
of poultry to breed from, "such as five claws, square 
frames," etc. Such birds have been bred in England for 
centuries, but varying in color; the probability is that 
they were imported by the Romans while Britain was a 
Roman colony, for they took most of their luxuries along 
with them. At any rate, these fowls have been so long 
known in England that they are called an English 
breed; they have been bred mottled, gray, splashed, 
cuckoo or dominique colored, white, and silver-gray, which 
is the last fashion in color. 

A fine Silver-gray Dorking cock is a well-shaped, 
noble bird, of about eight or nine pounds weight, with 
■full silver hackle and graceful flowing tail; he certainly 
makes a show that few birds can match; his face and 
comb are bright-red, beak strongly arched; saddle, back, 
and hackle fine silvery white, wing coverts the same; 
breast, thighs, and tail black when complying with the 
Standard, but the thighs of young birds are nearly 
always a little grayish if the bird is any size, and birag 
(136) 



EUROPEAN BREEDS. 



13? 



oyer one or two years old with me invariably have a little 
white on sickles. I have corresponded with many breed- 
ers of this breed, and they invariably tell the same expe- 
rience. In " Lewis Wright's Illustrated Poultry Boole/' 




Fig. 66. — WHITE DORKING FOWLS. 



the only portrait of a Silver-gray Dorking cock, which 
took cups at Crystal Palace, 1871; Dublin. 1872, and at 
all the principal English shows, has a white edge to the 
lower half of his sickle tail, feathers. Hon. W. E. 



138 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

Daniels, N. H., who carried the palm for his celebrated 
birds, states that he never had a bird worth breeding 
from that did not show white in his sickles at two years 
old; such birds are liable to be marked disqualified at any 
fair, as is sometimes done by judges who never kept and 
never knew anything about Dorkings, except from the 
Standard. The hen is a finely penciled steel-gray on 
back shoulders, and lower back part of body; the shafts 
of feathers on back form a fine white line, breast clear 
salmon color or light robin-red, shafts of feathers a 
lighter shade. The feet and legs of the hens, and also of 




Fig. 67.— FOOT OP DORKING FOWL. 

Uie cocks, pink or flesh colored, with five distinct toes, 
the fifth or upper toewell separated from the others, and 
slightly turned up. The neck is of a fine silvery-white 
color, with a black stripe down each feather. The dis- 
position of this breed is very docile; no breed shows more 
intelligence; they are the best of mothers, taking care of 
their chicks for a much longer time than most fowls; 
they are good layers of fair-sized eggs, and lay well all 
through the summer; if not the best of winter layers, 
they commence early and keep it up till late in the 
season. One great advantage of this breed is, they are 



EUROPEAN BKEEDS. 139 

in their prime when most fowls are too old for use; they 
ar^. long-lived. A hen has been known to bring up two 
broods in a season when she was six years old. They are 
most remarkable as foragers, being very active, industri- 
ous workers; if they do not improve your garden, they 
will find a good deal of their food on a farm or good run. 
As table fowl, their praises have been often sounded. 
They are second to none, and their cross with game pro- 
duces a table fowl of absolutely supreme merit. 



GAME FOWLS. 

While the Asiatic, Leghorns, Hamburgs, Polands, and 
a host of other breeds, each have their champion advo- 
cates, each claiming for their particular favorites all the 
profitable good qualities, there are but few who advocate 
the cause of the Game fowl, and really but few who fully 
understand the superior qualities of this Royal Bird. 
The origin and nationality of the Game fowl have always 
been, and yet remain, a mooted question. 

The record of Game fowls is as old as the oldest writ- 
ten history, wherein we find that the Persians, Greeks, 
Eomans, and a host of other nations, each had their na- 
tive Game fowls. 

Games were known to the Britons, and cock-fighting 
was carried on in England prior to Caesar's invasion, and 
hundreds of years prior to the Christian era, cock-fight- 
ing was an established institution with the Greeks and 
Persians. China, Java, and the entire East Indies each 
had their native Game fowls. 

Therefore, all theories advanced by naturalists as to the 
origin of the Game fowl are wholly speculative. 

The Game fowl was regarded as sacred to the gods in 
ancient times, and was used in ancient military schools 



140 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

for teaching the youth, by practical illustration, cournge 
and endurance in battle. They were used as emblems 
of ancient nationalities, being stamped on war banners, 
coins and shields; and, having withstood the decline of 
empires and witnessed the rise and fall of nations, they 
yet maintain to the present time their fame for gameness 
as of old, and are emphatically the kings of all domestic 
fowls. 

But not alone for their antiquity and historic glory do 
the Game fowls stand at the head of their kind, as they 
possess useful qualities in a very high degree, being good 
layers of good-sized eggs, and the most devoted of 
mothers. 



THE DUCK-WINGED GAME. 

Of the varieties of Game fowls the Duck-winged is. 
one of the most beautiful. Although its graceful form 
and dignified carriage are exceedingly attractive, its bril- 
liantly colored plumage is still more so, and can only be 
truly shown by the painter's art. Its bright and varied 
colors are so beautifully blended together that it excites 
the admiration of those even who take no delight in breed- 
ing poultry, while to the fancier it is one of the first favor 
ites. The face of the Duck-wing Game is a deep crim^ 
son ; the head is covered with small silvery-white feath- 
ers ; the hackle is white, slightly tinged with straw- 
yellow ; the back is maroon, claret and straw-yellow ; 
the saddle is slightly darker than the hackle, with fine 
short feathers hiding the points of the wings ; the 
shoulders are bright brass-yellow from the butts up to 
the clear steel bar, and no light streak is admissible in a 
well-bred bird ; the shoulder butts are black ; the breast 
and tail are black, with a shade of bronze upon the sickle 
feathers; the eyes are red, and the legs yellow. The 




Fig. 68.— BLACK-BREASTED RED GAME-COCK. 



(HI) 



EUROPEAN EREEDS. 143 

weight is from five to six pounds. The hen, when pure 
bred, has the head gray ; comb and face bright red ; 
hackle silvery gray, with dark stripes; the breast is 
bright salmon-red ; the back and shoulder coverts should 
be slaty-gray, free from penciling ; the tail is dark gray, 
so dark as to be nearly black ; the fluff inside is a steel 
gray, and the legs yellow. In breeding Duck-wings for 
color, much care and skill is necessary ; for the ordinary 
uses of poultry it is not necessary to do more than select 
the best birds, feed well, and keep them in the best and 
most vigorous health. Unfortunately for game poultry, 
their courage and endurance has been put to wrong uses, 
and through their enforced connection with the brutal 
and cruel sports of the cock-pit, they have in a measure 
come to be identified therewith, and are wrongly sup- 
posed to be good for nothing but fighting. On the con- 
trary, the Game fowl is one of the most, if not the most, 
beautiful of our fowls. It is the best table fowl, so far 
as regards quality and flavor of flesh. Its eggs are ex- 
ceedingly rich, and much desired for pastry or cakes. 
The cock is courageous, and will not hesitate to attack 
the hawk, and will defeat thp intruder in every attempt 
to ravage the poultry yard. The hen is an excellent 
mother, and although somewhat nervous and excitable 
when brooding her chickens, yet with care and quiet, 
gentle treatment she may be handled with ease. While 
brooding, she is as courageous as the cock, and will de- 
fend her chickens from a hawk, and generally with suc- 
cess. A farmer whose grain fields, and those of his 
neighbors, offer a too tempting foraging ground for these 
active fowls, would be wise to choose some of the heavier 
bodied breeds ; but where no damage of this kind can 
occur, any of the varieties of Game fowls might be chosen 
by those who fancy them, and wish for delicious eggs 
and flesh. 



144 PKOFLTS IN POULTRY. 



GAME FOWLS — A SENSIBLE GROWL. 

It is a noticeable fact that the department of Games 
in our poultry exhibitions is the great center of attrac- 
tion. Game fowls command higher prices than any of 
the old varieties, the eggs sell higher, and they are more 
extensively advertised in the poultry journals. The 
secret of this popularity lies mainly in the use to which 
these birds are put. The Game is unquestionably a good 
bird for eating, but is no better than some of the less 
quarrelsome varieties. They are prolific, but are sur- 
passed by other varieties. They are quite handsome, 
but this is not what they are bred for. The only thing 
in which they excel all other domestic fowls is their 
capacity to fight until the last gasp. No doubt many 
breed them for their flesh and eggs. They are frequently 
crossed with other fowls, but their quarrelsome disposi- 
tion does not make them favorites with the poultry-men, 
who only want flesh and eggs. They are mostly bred 
for the pit, and there is unquestionably an increasing 
love of this cruel sport, principally among a certain class 
in our cities and villages. Cock fights are common, 
held in some places on the sly, in other places quite 
openly, and attended by the same rabble that run after 
prize fights in the ring, and for the same reason. They 
show courage, and draw blood, and offer opportunities 
for betting and gambling. Frequently a main is fought, 
and several cocks are pitted against a similar number 
upon the other side. It is expected in these contests 
that all the cocks upon one side will be killed. The 
worst passions are stirred by these brute contests, and 
there is the same objection to them that there is to other 
forms of gambling. The bull fights of Spain are no 
more bloody and cruel. They tend to harden the sensi- 
bilities, and so corrupt the morals. All the associations 



EUROPEAN BREEDS. 145 

are low and degrading. There may be laws against these 
contests in some of the States, but they are seldom en- 
forced, and do not remedy the evil. Our poultry socie- 
ties have some responsibility in fostering the breeding of 
these birds. As a matter of fact, we think most of them 
would be found obnoxious to the charge of discrimina 
ting in their favor, instead of encouraging the more use^ 
ful and ornamental varieties. With the single exception 
of the Asiatic fowls, the largest amount of premiums is 
generally offered for Games. The premiums for turkeys, 
the most valuable of all our domestic birds, amount to 
much less, For geese, still less. Now, if the object of 
these societies is the promotion of the common weal, the 
highest premiums should be offered for the birds that 
are most useful, or for those that promise to be such. 
The managers should so arrange the list of premiums 
as to draw out the birds that will be the most profitable 
on the farm and in the poultry yard. No special in- 
ducements are needed for the breeding of Game fowls. 
That business would take care of itself if the premiums 
were altogether diverted to the most useful classes. 



HAMBURGS. 

In writing of Hamburgs, an admirer of this favorite 
breed says: They have taken their proper place in the 
list of popular breeds. All varieties of the Hamburg 
family are beautiful, symmetrical, and stylish in car- 
riage. They have been much improved in the beauty 
and uniformity of plumage since the era of poultry ex- 
hibits, but not in productiveness, as that is hardly pos- 
sible; for they have long maintained the reputation of 
being " every-day layers." Birds of the Hamburg fam- 
ily are of only medium size, but their deficiency in size 
10 



146 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

is more than made up for by their fecundity. Both 
sexes exhibit such glossy and elegantly marked plumage 
that they are looked upon as special favorites wherever 
shown or cultivated, and when well-bred are truly or- 
namental, possessing fancy points that render them 
pleasing to those who desire to keep pets that will fur- 
nish plenty of eggs and also be a gratification to the eye. 
Our standard recognizes six varieties of the Hamburg 
breed, — the Black, Silver-penciled, Golden-penciled, 
Silver-spangled, Golden-spangled, and White. The 




Fig 69.— SILVER-SPANGLED HAMBURGS. 

whole family is remarkably attractive in plumage, capU 
tal appendages, and the graceful curves which mark the 
outline of their well-rounded forms. In sprightliness, 
carriage, and habits they are much alike. The Black is 
a trifle larger and in appearance stouter than any of the 
other varieties. 

For table use, though small, they are very good; their 
flesh is tender, with little offal, having a larger propor- 
tion than usual of the dressed weight in flesh, from the 
delicate structure of the skeleton, and is fine in quality. 




(147) 



EUROPEAN- BREEDS. 140 

The cocks average about five pounds, and the hens four 
pounds. They will always be prime favorites with a 
large class of fanciers and village poultry-raisers. 



THE POLISH FOWL. 

There are several varieties of these ornamental fowls, 
differing but little except in their plumage. The main 
characteristics of each are alike, all being non-sitters, and 
are by many called everlasting layers. As a class, they are 
very prolific, and easily raised, feathering out and coming 
to maturity early. They are small compared with many 
varieties, but when full-grown weigh from ten to twelve 
pounds per pair. They are remarkably handsome, and 
in the yard or lawn have few superiors in beauty. In 
rearing them tastes differ; some prefer the White-crested 
Black, others the White and Spangled varieties. They 
are distinguished by a crest crowning the head, which 
gives them the appearance of a field-marshal in plumes, 
though in illustrations this feature is somewhat over- 
drawn. They are especially adapted to city residences, 
the lawn, and small inclosures, and extremely domestic 
in their habits. They seem fond of attention, and become 
remarkably tame and fond of the society of their keeper; 
are a hardy breed to raise, but sensitive to cold and wet; 
require warm, dry quarters, their heavy topknots hang- 
ing so far over their eyes as to interfere with their sight. 
They lay a large white egg of oblong shape, very creamy 
and rich, and for culinary uses is among the best quality. 
But the peculiar merit consists in their tame and quiet 
dispositions and fondness of attention, their extremely 
ornamental appearance on the lawn, graceful carriage, 
and the glossy and metallic lustre of their plumage. 
They are quite liable to pick each other's crests, and 



150 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

while in this condition render the top of the head bare 
and disfigured. Their coops shou 1 d be kept clean, and 
feed supplied them regularly, as tl Ley are poor foragers, 
and little inclined to scratch and w ander. Never sitting, 
they must be raised by other hens; and when first 
hatched a brood of the White-crested Black look like a 
line of diminutive grenadiers with white caps. Several 
gentlemen have turned special attention to improving 
this family and restoring them to their original purity, 
and by careful breeding are producing specimens that 
command the admiration of all. For many reasons we 
regard the Black and White Polish as the most fascina- 
ting and desirable breed of fowls for the young amateur 
to handle, always observing our standing admonition 
with this as with all other varieties, to breed but one 
strain, and that as nearly perfect as possible. If your taste 
fixes upon the White-crested Black, take that and breed 
for beauty; or upon the White or Golden, give that your 
best care. Whichever variety you select, give that your 
special culture. There is no variety that so quickly de- 
velops the error of a cross and disfigurement of a mix- 
ture as either variety of Polands, and when carefully 
and purely bred we know of none giving more pleasure 
and satisfaction to the breeder, or that can approach 
them in beauty as ornamental appendages to the yards 
and lawns of a city or suburban residence, and winning 
the attention and praise of our most prominent fanciers 
of pets, while as egg-producers they are not easily ex- 
celled. 



WHITE-CRESTED WHITE POLISH FOWLS. 

The origin of crested fowls is somewhat obscure. 
Cuvier and Buffon mention them, but are unable to fix 
upon their original source. It is supposed that they 




Fig. 71.— WHITE-CRESTED BLACX. POLISH FOWLS. 



151 



EUROPEAN" BREEDS. 153 

were first described by an Italian author, about 260 years 
ago, in whose treatise rough wood-cuts of some crested 
fowls were given as " Paduan Fowls." Paduan was an 
Italian city, and these crested fowls were, therefore, 
Italian. Buffon refers to the Paduan fowls, and supposed 
them to have been descended from Asiatic stock ; he 
also described a variety with white body and black crest, 
which has long been extinct, although breeders have 
made many efforts to restore it. The vareties of the 
Polish fowls now known are the White-crested White, 
the White-crested Black, the Golden, and the Silver- 
spangled, with some bearded varieties. Of these the 
most beautiful is, perhaps, the first mentioned. The 
Polish fowls are profuse layers, non-sitters, delicate table 
fowls, of handsome appearance ; they possess an oddity 
in their crests, which makes them attractive to the fancier 
and the amateur. They are contented in confinement, 
and bear close quarters very well; are easily kept within 
bounds and, becoming readily attached to their owners, 
make pleasing pets. When young, they are unusually 
elegant with their full crests, gracefully shaped little 
bodies, and tame disposition. On the whole, there is 
hardly any other breed which would give more satisfac- 
tory results in every way, where but one is kept, than 
this. For ornament, the pure white breeds have a de- 
cided advantage over the colored ones, because they show 
so conspicuously upon a green lawn or a field. The 
White Leghorn is very popular on this account, as well 
as for its prolific egg-producing ; but the White Polish 
has an advantage over the graceful Leghorn in the pos- 
session of a crest, a heavier body, and better flesh, as 
well as being equally valuable as an egg-producer. For 
ornament, therefore, as well as for use, the White Polish 
should be popular fowls. 



154 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 



THE BLACK SPANISH FOWL. 



Doubtless there exists no breed of thoroughbred fowls 
in any country, except the Grame, which can lay claim to 
priority of origin or to such an unbroken line of pure 
lineage as the Black Spanish. Nearly two thousand 
years ago Columella wrote about them; they were then 
indigenous to Spain, and not generally known in the 
Eoman Empire. Faint traces of their origin to the 
Phoenician colony of Carthage, through the doubtful 
media of Celtic poetry, are not sufficiently reliable of 
themselves to substantiate the claim. 

The Black Spanish is possibly the fourth in the order 
of Grallinae, or, in other words, the fourth distinct variety 
of the Oallus danhiva. Time has effected but little 
change in them during those years of close breeding. 
The same vital element, the same stamina, and the same 
power of reproducing their like in plumage, contou^ 
symmetry, carriage, and facial markings are as character- 
istic of the breed to-day as they were of them in past cen- 
turies. Some writers assert several varieties of the Black 
Spanish, as the Minorca, Red-faced, Black, the White, 
the Blue, Andalusian, and the Gray or Mottled Ancona. 
Although each of these varieties was produced by the 
amalgamation of the Black Spanish with other provin- 
cial breeds, yet, strictly speaking, each is definitely classed 
by the best-informed Spanish breeders as distinct varie- 
ties, inasmuch as they belong to the Mediterranean 
islands and provinces of Spain. Their resemblance to 
the Spanish is indeed close. Affinity no doubt exists; 
but nowadays, when skillful discriminations, careful 
selections, and thorough breeding produce those nice 
and fine points not found in the original congenitors, 
the progeny m time assumes distinctive features, plum- 
age, and peculiar characteristics, so as to be considered a 



EUROPEAN BREEDS. 155 

distinct variety of breed. The white face on the 
Spanish is purely Castilian, and it is a mooted question 
whether this feature is natural or was produced by years 
of study and skillful cultivation. 




Fig. 72.— WHITE-FACED BLACK SPANISH COCK. 

The feathering of the Spanish is close and hard. The 
metallic lustre which tips the hackle, back, and wings 
contrasts beautifully with the white face, bright-red comb 
and wattles. 



156 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

The carriage of the cock should combine stateliness, 
alertness, and gracefulness; he should be proud and carry 
his breast full and projecting; his color should be jet-black; 
white or partially white feathers is a serious fault; the 
comb, single and extending from the fore part of the nos- 
trils in an arched form. The white face is the most im- 
portant feature. It should be pure white, rising well over 
the eye and extending to the back of the head, covering 
the deep-sided cheeks, and jointing the long and well- 
rounded white ear-lobes and thin wattles. 

The Black Spanish are great layers; none surpass them 
in beauty, nor excel them in size and quantity of eggs. 
Our northern winters are too severe for them; yet they 
seem to do well, if we judge by the grand display of our 
poultry exhibitions. They require great care, during 
chickenhood; cold rains, damp houses and runs, and close 
confinement are positive seeds of mortality. They love to 
roam over the ample grounds of the breeder's home- 
stead, where they can bask in sunshine and display their 
unique and ornamental facial markings. 



WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS. 

The Leghorns have been widely known in this coun- 
try for the last twenty years. They have been growing 
in public favor every year, until they now stand in the 
first rank of pure-bred poultry. They did not spring up 
in a few years to their present standing and popularity, 
but with steady strides have gained hosts of admirers 
among both veteran and amateur fowl-breeders for their 
remarkable precocity and productiveness. 

Without doubt, we have no variety of domestic fowls 
among the improved breeds at present cultivated in this 
country that will during the year produce a larger num- 



EUROPEAN" BREEDS. 159 

ber of eggs on the average than the Leghorn. The lay- 
ing of eggs is their great forte; and if they be properly 
cared for and fed, they will lay well through cold 
weather, the hens being powerful machines for convert- 
ing food into eggs. 

The Leghorns, on a good range, can pick up the greater 
part of their own living. They are the most active and 
industrious foragers known. But if one is obliged to 
confine them to a small yard, clip their wing primaries 
to keep them within bounds, and you will be surprised 
to see how they will scratch and keep busy day after 
day. 

It is true there is some trouble experienced in winter- 
ing Leghorns successfully in our frigid climate; so that 
they will appear at our annual shows and come out in 
spring with their combs and pendants unscathed by 
Jack Frost. But, as it often has been said by our lead- 
ing fanciers of this and other high-combed varieties, 
they should be kept in quarters where there is no dan- 
ger of freezing; and no poultryman who values his fowls 
should allow them in winter to occupy a place that is 
not warm and comfortable. 

From the time Leghorns leave the shell they grow 
rapidly, are hardy, active, strong, and healthy, mature 
early, and are comparatively free from disease. During 
moulting, when other breeds succumb to the drain on 
the system by shedding and putting on their coat of 
feathers, they take on their new plumage quickly, and 
show little signs of weakness or debility. 

They are a proud, sprightly, and handsome variety of 
fowls. They are singularly precocious, and it is quite 
common to see the pullets developed and doing theii 
duty as layers before they have attained the age of five 
months; and the cockerels — such little scamps — making 
love before they are four months old. 



160 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

The general objection to the Whites is the difficulty 
in keeping the plumage unsoiled. Where, however, they 
receive proper care there is little trouble. 



BROWN LEGHORN". 

The Leghorns have a high reputation as layers. Of 
these Italian fowls, the brown variety has recently be- 
come very popular. Said to have been introduced by 
Mr. F. J. Kinney, of Massachusetts, who bought the 
first trio that was imported, in 1853, from on board a 
ship in Boston harbor. Since then Mr. Kinney has 
made several importations from Leghorn, in Italy. The 
character of these birds is of the very best. They are 
yellow skinned, and excellent table fowls, are extremely 
"lardy, and enormous layers. Hens have laid on the 
tverage 240 eggs in the year in some flocks. Pullets 
often begin to lay before they are five months old, and 
continue laying during the whole winter. They are gay 
plumaged birds, and have become popular amongst fan- 
ciers. The Brown Leghorns are described as having the 
comb of the Black Spanish fowl, with its head and body, 
and the plumage or color of the Black-red Game. The 
Brown Leghorn cock is black-breasted, with hackles of 
orange-red, striped with bhick ; the ear-lobes are white. 
The hen is salmon-color on the breast, with the rest of 
the plumage brown, finely penciled with dark mark- 
ings. They thrive fairly well in confinement. A promi- 
nent English poultry fancier is of the decided opinion 
that this breed is the best of all our " American" breeds, 
when size and product of eggs are taken into considera- 
tion. The Leghorns are all called in England American 
breeds, because American fanciers first developed them 
as pure breeds, and, so to speak, "brought them out." 



EUROPEAN BREEDS. 161 

They are non-sitters, which is a great advantage whei 
eggs are the product mainly desired. There is scarcely 
any stock of the farm which is so poorly managed as the 
poultry, yet there is none that may be more productive. 




Fig. 74.— BROWN LEGHORNS. 

A yield of two or three dozen eggs and a brood of half 
a dozen chickens is generally considered a fair season's 
production for a hen.. This is the consequence of keep- 
ing poor stock, or neglecting that which is better, and 
capable of doing better with proper treatment. Poultry 
11 



162 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

may be improved by careful breeding as well as a pig or 
a cow. An infusion of new blood should be procured 
every year or two, and a bird of undoubted excellence 
should be bought. 



THE FRENCH BREEDS — HOUDANS AND CREVECCEURS. 

If profit is the chief end of poultry-keeping, and this 
is certainly the purpose for which farmers and those who 
raise poultry for the market, as well as those who com- 
pete for prizes at the poultry shows, are all in pursuit of, 
then the French breeds of fowls are worthy of high con- 
sideration. There is no other country in the world 
where poultry is so popular a product in the market, or 
so frequent a dish upon the tables, as in France, and v 
breed that is in favor there must possess positive merit. 
In addition to the vast number of eggs which are con 
sumed in every possible shape in cookery, and in variolic 
arts, millions of dollars' worth are exported from France 
every year; and the poulet, variously presented, is not 
only a very conspicuous item on the bills of fare, but \ti 
delicacy and succulence entitle it to the prominence it 
enjoys. That it is acceptable in France should be to a 
breed a passport to popular favor everywhere. Yet the 
French fowls are not nearly so popular in America as 
they deserve to be. The Houdans and the Crevecoeurs 
are both prolific egg-producers, grow mpidly, and pos- 
sess white and juicy flesh. Yet we have admired these 
fowls in the yards of other people, and have listened 
favorably to frequent praise of their profit and their 
beauty. The Houdan is doubtless a very handsome and 
attractive bird, and a flock of them, well bred and well 
cared for, is very showy in the yard or the field They 
are square and massive about the body, with short legs, 
& spirited or even a fierce carriage, on account of their 




(163) 



EUROPEAN BREEDS. 165 

peculiar crest, beard, and muffling, and the lively mark- 
ings of their plumage, which, when perfect, is of a 
mixed "pebbly" black-and-white. They have the fifth 
toe, — a useless, objectionable member, which they inherit 
from the Dorking strain in their ancestry, although 
along with it they have the fine-flavored flesh and plump 
breast of that race. Their legs are gray and their bones 
remarkably light They are egg- producers rather than 
breeders; and if properly fed, the hens will lay on with- 
out stopping to " sit." They will thrive in confinement, 
when properly kept, as well as when roaming at large; 
and when allowed to range, exercise the liberty now and 
then with greater freedom than is convenient upon the 
farm. The standard of excellence of the poultry-fan- 
ciers for the Houdan is subject to some variation as to 
minor points, such as the shape of the comb; the fifth 
toe, however, is insisted upon; the feathering should be 
of black and white, evenly mixed, and not patchy; the 
saddle of the cock is tipped with straw yellow; the crest 
is of black and white feathers, evenly mixed, and thrown 
back so as to show the comb, which is double, evenly 
toothed upon each side, and with both sides alike in 
shape; the hackle is black and white, the beard and 
muffle almost hide the face, and the wattles are long and 
evenly rounded at the ends. The hen is square-bodied, 
and low-framed, with plumage like that of the cock; 
the crest is full and round and not loose and straggling 
or shaggy. The fifth claw is large and turned upwards, 
as with the cock. If good birds are procured to start 
with, they should breed very true to the marks; but if 
long closely bred, they will in time become mixed in ap- 
pearance. 

The Crevecceur, like the Houdan, is named from the 
village in France in the neighborhood of which it has 
long been largely bred for market. These birds are re- 
markably stately and handsome, although somber in 



166 PROFITS I2ST POULTRY. 

color, except in the sunlight, when the golden-green re- 
flections from the plumage make them very brilliant; but 
this peculiarity is only brought out in a favorable light. 
They are much more rarely seen than the Houdans, al- 
though as producers of eggs, and for non-sitting as well 
as for early maturity, and whiteness and sweetness of 
flesh, they surpass these. They are not winter layers, 
which is an objection; but when the cock is crossed upon 
Brahma hens, the eggs produce table birds of heavy 
weight, excellent quality, and in" time for early market- 
ing. They suffer nothing from confinement, and a 
dozen can be easily kept in a yard twenty feet square. 
They are very tame and friendly when petted. They 
excel as table birds, notwithstanding their black legs, 
which may be objected to by the marketmen or the 
cooks; this feature has no ill effect upon the color, flavor, 
or tenderness of the flesh, which is very white and of de- 
licious flavor. Young birds will fatten when three months 
old, and have been made to weigh four pounds at that age, 
and at six months, with two weeks' fattening, have weighed 
seven pounds. The Crevecceur cock should be a heavy, 
compact bird, mounted upon short, thick legs; the thigliSj 
being well feathered, tend to give the birds a heavier 
and more solid build. The back is broad and flat, giv- 
ing a robustness to the figure, and slopes but slightly 
towards the tail, which is carried high. The general 
carriage is dignified, their scdateness being somewhat 
heightened by their somber coloring. The comb is two- 
horned or "antlered," and the crest is formed of lancet- 
shaped feathers, which fall backwards and do not 
straggle wildly in all directions, as in the Houdan The 
chicks are hardy when properly cared for, but early 
chicks of this breed are rare, on account of the late habits 
of the hen. The breast is full; the hackle is long and 
sweeps gracefully down the neck; the beard and muffle 
are full and low on the throat, and the plumage, as pre- 



EUROPEAN BREEDS. 



167 



viously described, when perfect, is of a solid black, with 
greenish and sometimes brilliant reflections. The hen 
is similar in color and special points to the cock; her 
body is massive, and her legs strong to match her stout 
body. Her plumage is perfectly black, the crest is 
large, and the beard full, and the comb, which is horned, 
is much hidden in the crest. 

As these birds become aged a few stray white feathers 
will appear in the crest, which, however, should be an 
objection in young birds. When but one breed is kept, 
the Houdan would be preferable to the Crevecoeur, on 
account of its more lively color; but when cross-bred 
birds are not objected to, a few of the latter, with their 
remarkably beautiful color when in a bright light, their 
large size and handsome carriage, their desirable table 
qualities, and the habit of the hen to lay when others 
are broody, would make a very desirable addition to a 
flock of Brahmas or Cochins. 




CHAPTEll XVI. 

AMERICAN BREEDS 
PLYMOUTH BOCKS. 

The breed known as the Plymouth Rock is generally 
acknowledged the best for useful purposes that has ever 
been bred in this country, and as especially adapted to 
our American climate, markets, and uses. As fowls for 
the farmer and raiser of market poultry, they are su- 
perior to other birds in many respects. They fill the 
requirements of the farm, while maintaining their purity 
as a breed. They are good layers, sitters, and mothers. 
They are excellent foragers, and, being at the same time 
under easy control, will bear close confinement without 
injury. They have the desirable characteristic of being 
self-reliant when roaming at will and dependent upon 
their own exertions, and contented and happy when re- 
strained in close quarters. 

For general purposes we know of no better fowl. 
They are hardy, and easily raised, and for a breed that is 
so large they are wonderfully active and industrious, quick 
and sprightly in their movements. With a good yard 
of Plymouth Rocks, the farmer or market-poultry raiser 
has a breed that fills all requirements; the farmer's 
object being not so much to gratify taste or a love of 
the beautiful and ornamental, as to keep fowls that will 
give a good supply of eggs through a great part of the 
year, and furnish in the fall and winter large-sized, com- 
pact birds, possessing a presentable color for the table. 

The Plymouth Rocks were first brought to notice 
when the Brahmas and Cochins were leading the fashion, 
and did not attract particular attention; but on the score 
(168) 




Fig. 76 (a).— WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 




(1G9) 



Fig. 76 (6).— BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 



AMERICAN BREEDS. 171 

of their merits alone they have worked their way up, 
and earned for themselves a lasting reputation for gen- 
eral utility. 

This breed is deservedly becoming very popular among 
those persons who keep fowls for profit. First among 
the good qualities of a fowl, is size. This the Plymouth 
Eocks have in an unusual degree. There are many ex- 
cellent breeds of poultry which are all that can be de- 
sired except as to size, and the lack of this is fatal to 
their popularity; for, after all, profit is the chief object 
with most people in choosing a kind of fowl to keep. 
Hardiness of constitution and vigor, pleasing form, 
handsome and attractive plumage, and prolific produc- 
tion of eggs are all very desirable qualities in fowls, and 
these all belong to the breed. The future of the Ply- 
mouth Eocks will depend greatly upon the care or fortun- 
ate success with which they are bred. Difference of taste 
leads breeders to favor different styles, and thus " strains" 
are originated. If these styles are made to depart too 
jnuch from a rigid standard, there is danger that an im- 
portant and essential point may be sacrificed for some 
minor fancy. To prevent this, and to induce or enforce 
care and consistency in breeding, it would be well that 
a very close adherence to the standard be insisted upon 
in all exhibitions, and that a very rigid one be adopted. 
In the case of the birds here represented, they come fully 
up to the accepted standard of excellence of American 
breeders, and meet it in every respect. The points re- 
quired are: The breast to be "broad, deep, and full," 
and the body to be "large, square, and compact." The 
form of these birds is therefore nearly perfect, and if 
breeders of the Plymouth Eocks vie with each other in 
taking advantage of favorable accidents in breeding, and 
in fixing them upon their strains, or in using care in 
selecting birds for breeding, as any skillful breeder may 
readily do, the future history of this breed will be a very 



172 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

gratifying one. Among some of seventy breeds recog- 
nized in the American standand of excellence, there are 
only three of American origin, viz., the old-fashioned 
Dominique, the Plymouth Rocks, and the Wyandottes. 
After some years of careful breeding the Plymouth Rock 
has been brought to such a condition of merit, that it is 
now one of the most popular breeds, and promises to be 
one of the most suitable for farmers and attractive to 
amateurs. 



AMERICAN DOMINIQUES. 

This old-fashioned breed is said to have been brought 
over by the early Puritans, and wherever bred in purity 
is acknowledged to be one of the best, hardiest, and 
most beautiful of all domestic fowls; and as there has 
certainly been no importation of any fowls of this breed 
into this country for a century, they have come to be re- 
garded as strictly an' American variety. 

They are without doubt the oldest of the distinctive 
American breeds, being mentioned in the earliest poultry 
books as an indigenous and valued variety. In the fu- 
rore for fancy breeds of fowls, the older sorts are some- 
times wellnigh forgotten; yet it is highly probable 
that the American Dominiques possess as many good 
qualities as any of the newer breeds. If they do not 
reach the heavy weight of some of the latter breeds, they 
have great merit, and none give better satif action to the 
farmer than this old American breed of Dominiques. 

They should weigh from six to eight pounds when 
matured. 

The Dominiques are excellent layers, very hardy, un- 
exceptionable as mothers, yet are not given to excessive 
incubation, and are good for the table. They grow both 
fat and feathers quickly, while their plain "home-spun" 



AMERICA^ BREEDS. 173 

suits make them very suitable for countless localities 
where larger and more valuable-looking fowls would be 
liable to be stolen. The merits of this breed will recom- 
mend it to persons residing in the country as well worthy 
of promotion in the poultry-yard, whether as producers 
of eggs or of meat, or as sitters or nurses. 

The color of their plumage maybe described as a light 
steel-gray ground, with each feather distinctly striped 
or barred across with a darker or bluish-gray, the bars 
shading off gradually from dark into light. The cock 
is a yery showy bird, with full saddle and hackle, and 
abundant well-curved sickle feathers. The comb should 
be a neat "rose" form; face, wattles, and ear-lobes 
should be red; wattles neat, well-rounded, and of me- 
dium size; legs bright yellow. 



WYANDOTTES. 

A breed which for some time was known as the 
" American Seabrights" has many admirers, who were 
instrumental in having the variety admitted to the 
Standard at the meeting of the American Poultry As- 
sociation held at Worcester in 1883. At the same time 
the birds were given the name of "Wyandottes. 

Breeders differ in their statements of the origin of this 
variety, but it is generally considered to be a cross of the 
Brahma and Hamburg breeds. It matters little, how- 
ever, what the history of the fowl is, so long as it pos- 
sesses the desired characteristics. When well-bred, the 
Wyandottes are good layers, sitters, and mothers, and 
their flesh is of the finest flavor. Their plumage is 
white and black, each feather having a white ground 
and being heavily laced with black, the tail alone being 
solid black. They have a small rose comb, face and 



174 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



ear-lobes bright-red, legs free from feathers and of a 
rich yellow color. Hens will weigh eight to nine pounds, 
and cocks nine to ten pounds, when matured. 

In this breed we have the rose comb like the Ham- 
burgs, but not so large. The plumage is black-and- 
white-speckled, like the Hamburgs, but darker, with the 
black tail of the Brahma. The legs are yellow, like the 
Brahma, but bare like the Hamburg. Fine specimens 
are nearly as large as the Brahma. The effort has been 




Fig. 77.— WYANDOTTE FOWLS. 



in this combination to preserve the good qualities and 
eliminate the undesirable ones of both parent breeds. 
The Plymouth Rock has been a favorite with those who 
have wanted a plump, fat chicken of a pound and a half 
weight as broilers. The Wyandotte is fully its equal in 
this respect. It feathers with its growth, and is plump 
at any age, thrifty and hardy in raising, yellow-skinned, 
and in all respects an excellent variety for forcing early. 
When grown, they are plump in body and of an attract- 
ive appearance in the market. They lay a medium-sized 




U75) 






AMERICAN BREEDS. 177 

egg of dark-buff color. Their laying qualities depend 
much on the selections and matings of the parent stock. 
In markings the fowls are very handsome, the hen more 
so than the cock. In the main, the feathers are white 
with a black border, which makes them evenly and 
brightly speckled. The hackle is penciled white and 
black, and the tail black. 



AMERICAN JAYAS. 

In writing of our American Javas Mr. Bicknell says: 
They have characteristics different from any other va- 
riety; they present large size, long bodies, deep full 
breast, and their general make-up is just what is required 
for a genuine, useful superior table fowl — hardiness and 
beauty. 

Of the two varieties, Black and Mottled, there is little 
difference except in plumage. They have single combs, 
feet are yellow, shanks free from feathers, skin yellow; 
when served on the table the flesh does not present that 
objectionable dark color common to some other breeds 
but is eaual to the Plymouth Rock in every particular. 
*2 



CHAPTER XVII. 

DISEASES OF POULTRY. 

Poultry generally suffer from preventible ills. It is 
almost useless, and rarely ever worth while, to treat sick 
poultry. A chicken is hardly worth the trouble re- 
quired to physic it, and nine out of ten die in spite of all 
the treatment that can be given them. Poultry are 
naturally subject to very few diseases. If kept clean, 
not overfed, not cooped up close, kept from foul, pu- 
trid food, supplied with clean water regularly, and have 
abundant pure air in their roosting-places, they live and 
thrive without any trouble, except in rare cases. The 
fatal disorders which result from ill-treatment cannot 
be cured by medicine. It is too late. The mischief hag 
been done when the first symptoms appear, and the bes/ 
procedure is generally to kill the diseased fowls and sav 
the rest by sanitary measures. 



DISTEMPER, ROUP, AND CHICKEN-POX. 

An article which recently appeared in a poultry jour- 
nal is the most practical we have ever seen on these 
subjects, and is well worth reprinting. Fowls never per- 
spire; the waste of the system is in a large measure car- 
ried off in the vapor of the breath, which is far more 
rapid than is by many supposed. The heart of the 
fowl beats 150 times per minute, which causes a rapid 
respiration, and demands twice the amount of air in pro- 
portion to weight. Even the bones of the wing are 
(178) 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 179 

charged with air, and so much so that the windpipe 
severed and tied, and the wing sawn off, it will admit 
air enough to sustain life for some time. 

Distemper, which seems to be an acclimated disease, 
yet if neglected often results in roup, is easily detected 
by a puffed face, deep scarlet in color, and in two or three 
days discharges from the nostrils appear. In this disease 
the membrane of the air-passages, tear- tube and throat 
is inflamed; and when so much so as to close the tear- 
tube, the discharges become acrid, and roup is the result. 
To prevent this, it becomes necessary to check these mu- 
cus-discharges. The use of kerosene is a handy and sure 
cure. By holding the fowl so it cannot swallow, and 
filling the throat with the oil, holding long enough to 
have the oil thoroughly saturate the throat, then allow- 
ing the same to run out of the mouth, and by washing 
the nostrils out, and injecting a few drops into each nasal 
passage, the effect is magical; and if attended to during 
the first two days of the distemper, one application gen- 
erally proves sufficient. So safe and sure is this remedy 
that I have not used any other for the past two years. It 
checks at once the unnatural discharges. The breathing 
of kerosene for the twenty-four hours seems to have a 
most marvelous effect, and restoration to health is the 
result. By neglect we often have an attack of " roup/' 
which is apparent inafetid breath, swollen head, and in- 
flamed face, a throat and mouth filled with canker. No 
matter what the cause that has brought this state of 
things to your flock, — be it bad ventilation, filthy quar- 
ters, unclean water- vessels, or neglect to remove roupy 
specimens till by the taint of the water by drinking in 
the same vessel the whole flock is effected, — it is safe, when 
a part of the fowls are so affected, to reason that the en- 
tire flock is in a measure poisoned in blood, and means 
should be taken to prevent its spreading. If we in such 
a case put in the water-vessel bromide of potassium to 



180 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

the extent of two grains to eacli fowl, for three or four 
days, the evils of the ravage may be stayed. 

But in treating those bad cases described above, if the 
patient is so full of canker as to be unable to eat, we 
must administer the doses. 

At the time of the Portland exhibition, I had sent to 
me a patient in the shape of a fine Light Brahma. The 
bird did not arrive until I had left for the exhibition; 
consequently, it was three days before I could attend to 
him. When I rehired I found him in the following 
deplorable condition: His mouth was as full as it could 
possibly be of canker; his head was swollen till both eyes 
were closed, and face and comb were broken out with 
dry canker, or, as some poultrymen eall it, chicken-pox. 
By the use of a large syringe, I injected the bird's crop 
full of milk in which four grains of bromide had been 
dissolved; I then gargled the mouth and throat with 
kerosene in the way described above. 

We see many recommendations to remove the canker 
by forcible means; this is the very worst thing that can 
be done (inhuman and retards the cure). In the case of 
the Light Brahma, by gargling the throat three morn- 
ings, the fourth morning nearly all the canker slipped 
off, leaving the mouth smooth. I administered the milk 
and bromide for the four days also. 

The head, as I have described, was a swollen, shapeless 
mass. I felt that the case was a hopeless one, and, al- 
ready knowing the curative properties of the oil for 
canker in the throat, I bathed the head, face, and throat 
with the oil, repeating the operation the second morn- • 
ing, when I noticed here and there small blisters on the 
throat, and a decided improvement in the looks of my 
patient. I then on the fourth morning applied the oil 
again, when the swelling subsided, and he opened his 
eyes and commenced to eat a little, and from that time 
improved rapidly; the blisters of course dried down. 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 181 

About a week afterward I was brushing the dry scale 
from face and comb, and in the process I lifted entire 
the cuticle and feathers from head and neck for three 
inches down, which demonstrated the power of the oil 
as a counter-irritant, and the necessity of care in its use. 
These two medicines are all I have used since for distem- 
per or roup, and so successful have I been that I think 
it safe to say I have not lost five birds by roup in the past 
two years. 

Chicken-pox — warty blotches of comb and throat — can 
be treated with bromide, by giving three grains a day, 
and isolating the bird till the spots dry and cleave off, 
which will be in a week or ten days. The plan to remove 
those caps is a very bad one, and only spreads the disease. 
Patience, giving time for the bromide to do its work, 
and the shedding of the dry scales, is all that is needed 
for a cure. 



CHICKED OR FOWL CHOLERA. 

There is nothing more unsatisfactory than a sick 
chicken, or more difficult to treat, and we find that the 
best writers upon poultry diseases insist much more 
upon prevention than upon cures. The term "chol- 
era" is applied to a disease which, though it varies 
in different parts of the country, is everywhere accom- 
panied by a violent diarrhoea, and is rapidly fatal. In 
every such outbreak of disease among fowls, the first 
thing to be done is to separate the sick from the well, 
and at once give a change of food, which should be of 
the most nourishing character, and combined with some 
stimulant, such as Cayenne pepper, or a tonic, like 
iron. Modern writers upon poultry diseases are greatly 
in favor of iron in some form as a tonic. The old 
method of putting rusty nails in the drinking-water had 



182 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

good sense at the bottom of it, but a more active lorm 
of iron is desirable. The English poultrymen are much 
in favor of " Douglas's Mixture/' This is made by put- 
ting eight ounces of sulphate of iron (also called cop- 
peras, or green vitriol) into a jug (never use a metallic 
vessel) with two gallons of water, and adding one ounce 
of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol). This is to be put 
into the drinking- water in the proportion of a tea-spoon- 
ful to a pint, and is found to be a most useful tonic 
whenever such is needed. So soon as the disease breaks 
out among the poultry, this should be given to the well 
to enable them to resist it, together with more nutri- 
tious and easily digestible food. 

One writer on the subject states that he made a satu- 
rated solution of alum, and whenever a bird was at- 
tacked, gave it two or three tea-spoonfuls, repeating the 
dose the next day. He mixed their feed, Indian meal, 
with alum water for a week. Since adopting this he 
has lost no fowls. Another writes that in each day's 
feed of cooked Indian meal, for a dozen fowls, he added 
a table-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, gunpowder, and 
turpentine, feeding this every other day for a week. 
From what we have heard of chicken-cholera, it ap- 
pears to be a protest against improper feeding and 
housing rather than any well-defined disease. Fowls 
are often in poor condition on account of the vermin 
they are obliged to support, or they may be in impaired 
health from continuous feeding on corn alone. When 
in this weakened state, a sudden change in the weather 
may induce diarrhea, or a cold, which attacks the flock 
so generally that the disease appears to be epidemic. 
And being generally and rapidly fatal, it is called " chol- 
era," and the owner of such a flock at once writes us for 
a remedy for " chicken-cholera." A recent letter, from 
a friend in Massachusetts, is the type of many others 
received of late. This informed us that some of the 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 183 

fowls would leave the rest of the flock, go off and mope 
by themselves, refuse to eat, and, as a general thing, 
those so affected soon died. The writer assumed this to 
be cholera. Our reply was essentially as follows: Sepa- 
rate at once the sick birds from the well. If the poultry- 
house has not recently been put in order, remove all the 
fowls until it can be fumigated, by burning sulphur, 
and then whitewashed in every part of the interior with 
lime- wash, to each pailful of which half a pound of 
crude carbolic acid has been added. Mix some lard and 
kerosene, and, with a rag, or swab, rub all the roosts. 
Throw out all the old straw from the nest-boxes, and 
grease with the lard and kerosene the insides of these. 
Eenew the dust-boxes, using fine road-dust, and mixing 
some sulphur with the dust. 



SCABBY LEGS IK POULTRY. 

The unsightly disease which affects the legs of fowls, 
causing them to swell and become distorted, is due to a 
mite, a small insect which is similar in appearance to 
that which causes scab in sheep. It is roundish-oval, 
and semi-transparent, about one eight-hundredth of an 
inch in length, appearing, when magnified 400 diam- 
eters, about half an inch long. If the scales from the 
leg of a diseased fowl are beneath the microscope, a 
number of these mites may be found between them. 
Beneath the scales there are spongy, scabby growths, in 
which the eggs and pupae of the mites are to be seen in 
great numbers. The pupae are very similar in shape to 
the mature mites, but are very much smaller, appearing, 
when viewed with the above-mentioned power, about 
one tenth of an inch in length. The disease, being of a 
similar character to the scab in sheep, or the mange in 
dogs and cattle, may be cured by the same treatment.- 



184 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

We have cured fowls of the disease, before accurately 
knowing the cause, by applying to the legs a mixture of 
lard with one-twentieth part of carbolic acid. This 
should be applied with a stiff brush, such as one of 
those sold with bottles of mucilage. A very small paint- 
er's sash-brush would answer the purpose; but some- 
thing must be used by which the medicated grease can 
be applied thoroughly to the crevices between the scales. 
A mixture of equal parts of lard or sweet-oil and kero- 
sene will be equally as effective as the carbolic-acid mix- 
ture. It is probable that lard, or oil alone, would be 
effective, but the kerosene more easily penetrates 
between the scales, and the carbolic acid is sure death 
to the parasites. The remedy being so simple, it will 
be inexcusable if this disagreeable affection is suffered 
to remain in a flock; while, however, one fowl is troubled 
with it, it will certainly spread, as the mites will 
burrow beneath the scales of the other fowls. If pre- 
cautions were generally used, the parasite could soon be 
exterminated. It should be made a disqualification at 
poultry-shows for fowls to be affected with scabby legs 
or feet, in any degree whatever, for we know that sev- 
eral poultry-yards are not free from this disease; and 
whenever affected fowls are sent out, the disease goes 
with them. 



EGG-EATING FOWLS. 

When fowls are confined they will eat their eggs, and 
no persuasion but that of the ax will prevent them. 
They must be freed from confinement and given their 
natural employment of scratching, or they will get into 
this mischief. 

If the bird is worth the trouble, a nest may be so ar- 
ranged that the egg, when laid, will at once roll out of 
sight and reach. 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 185 



FEATHER-EATING FOWLS. 



The habit of pulling and eating feathers is also com- 
mon among fowls confined, It is impossible to cure 
the fault when once acquired, and it is best to kill the 
fowls for table use at first sight, as they quickly teach 
others to do the same. The cause is doubtless a need or 
appetite for something contained in the feathers. A 
mixture of dried flesh and bone, specially prepared for 
potiltry, with a small quantity of sulphur, will act as a 
preventive. Bits of fresh lean meat, or scraps, or fine- 
powdered fresh bones, will answer. 

Another remedy is to give them a sleep's pluck, or 
liver, to pick at, hanging it up within reach, and to 
give them wheat scattered in the earth or litter of their 
houses. This will give them food and work to occupy 
their time. 



THE PIP. 

Poultry are sometimes troubled with a disease known 
as "pip." This is inflammation of the tongue and 
mouth, with the growth of a horny scale on the point 
of the tongue, which prevents the fowls from feeding. 
Give each fowl a pinch of powdered chlorate of potash, 
dropping it into the throat and upon the tongue, and 
remove the scale with the point of a penknife. 



GAPES. 

Gapes is the result of parasitic worms in the wind- 
pipe. The only cure is to dislodge them. This is 
sometimes successfully done by putting the chicks in a 
box, covering the top with a piece of muslin, and dust- 



186 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

ing fine lime through the cloth. The chicks breathe 
the lime, and as it comes in contact with the worms, 
these let go of the membranes, and are dislodged by the 
coughing and sneezing of the chicks. To prevent 
gapes, the chicks should not be kept on ground where 
fowls have previously been. This may be done either 
by spading old ground deeply each year, or providing a 
different locality for the poultry-yard. 



EGG-BOUND FOWLS. 

It is not at all uncommon for hens, especially old and 
infirm ones, to become egg-bound. The eggs without 
shells collect in the egg-passage, and form a mass of 
hard, cheesy matter, which in time causes the abdomen 
to swell, and finally kills the fowl. In the early stages 
of this trouble the remedy is to inject some linseed-oil 
into the passage, and, by dilating it with the fingers, 
remove the collected matter. The trouble is generally 
from over-feeding with stimulating food. 



LOSS OF FEATHERS. 

Poultry will frequently drop their feathers when 
over-fed upon corn, buckwheat, or other heating food. 
The remedy is to feed only chopped cabbage or turnips, 
or turn them into a grass-field for a few days. A few 
pills of castile-soap, or half a tea-spoonful of castor-oil, 
will be of benefit. 



BUMBLE FOOT. 

This is usually caused by a bruise or sliver; inflam- 
mation sets in, and pus forms under the skin and be 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 18? 

comes condensed into hard, cheesy matter. When dis- 
covered, while the pus is in liquid form, if the skin be 
opened with a knife, the pus-cavity well syringed out 
with carbolic acid and water, the place kept open by 
poulticing for a day or two, it heals up. The same 
trouble sometimes attacks the shank; in such a case 
open the sack at the bottom and top, and syringe the 
cavity from the top to the bottom a couple of times; 
then use strong liniment on the shank, and it will all 
heal up. When the case is of so long standing that the 
pus becomes hard and cheesy, the only way is to lay the 
whole thing open, making an opening large enough to 
press the core out; then poultice and use the carbolic 
acid and water baths, finally winding up with a strong 
liniment. 



DEFENSE AGAINST DISEASE. 

If cared for, and they have clean, wholesome quarters 
and not crowded, poultry will always be healthy. If a 
fowl merely acts a little " cranky, " do not imagine that 
it is sick, and commence stuffing it with drugs; simply 
remove it to a pen some distance from the flock, and let 
it alone a few days. If it proves to be very sick, chop off 
its head and burn it. For cholera, a strong solution of 
hyposulphite of soda, given three times a day, in tea- 
spoonful doses, is probably the best remedy we have. 
For gapes, dip a feather in turpentine, and insert it 
into the windpipe. One application will generally cure; 
two are sometimes necessary. Dip scaly legs in kero- 
sene two or three times. A little sulphur mixed with 
the food once a week in winter prevents packing of the 
crop and irregularities of the bowels, caused by over- 
eating and the constant production of eggs. Gravel and 



188 



PROFITS m POULTRY. 



coarse sand are necessary for the digestion of food. 
Crushed bones, old plaster, lime, etc., are necessary for 
the formation of egg-shells. Cayenne pepper in small 
quantities, mixed with the food occasionally during the 
winter, promotes egg-laying. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 



PARASITES UPON POULTRY. 



It is very common to speak of " Hen-lice" as if there 
were but one kind of insect parasite upon our fowls. 
The fact is that there are at least five species of lice 
which, with several mites, ticks, and kindred creatures, 
bring up the number of poultry pests to a dozen or 
more. From the day the chick leaves the egg, to that 
on which it is prepared for market, it is subject to the 
attacks of one or more of these 
parasites. That they interfere 
with the comfort, and conse- 
quently the thrift of the birds, 
is evident, and to be a successful 
poultry-raiser one should know 
thoroughly the habits of these 
poultry enemies and the methods 
of getting rid of them. That 
some are wonderfully prolific is 
shown by feathers sent us by a 
friend in New Hampshire, who 
writes: "They have something 
on the base, and about every 
feather in the ' fluff ' is like 
these." (See Fig. 79.) The engraving, of the natu- 
ral size, gives the appearance of the feathers. A 
magnifier showed the "something on the base 55 to be 
a dense mass of the eggs of a parasite, and it is safe to 
say that there were several hundreds in each cluster. A 
portion of the eggs had hatched, and we do not wonder 
that our friend wrote that the " cockerel is very lousy." 
Some of the creatures live only upon the feathers of the 
(189) 




7P— EGGS AT BASE 
FEATHER. 



190 PKOFITS IN POULTRY. 

bird, while others are provided with suckers by which to 
draw the blood. Where the fowls are in good health, 
and have free use of the dust bath, they keep the para- 
sites from excessive increase. In winter there should 
always be a box of fine earth for dusting kept where 
no water can reach it, Old nest-boxes should be treated 
to a bath of scalding lye before they are again used. 

To get rid of fleas, the chicken-house should be 
thoroughly whitewashed — not half done — with hot lime- 
wash. The floor should be well sprinkled with a solution 
of carbolic acid, and the rocsts thoroughly greased with 
a mixture of one pound of lard, one pint of raw linseed 
oil, a quarter of a pint of kerosene, and a quarter of a 
pound of sulphur. 

When kerosene oil is placed on the fowls themselves, 
it should be used sparingly; properly applied, it is the 
best known remedy for lice, but to use it recklessly is 
dangerous. 



Unfortunately for the fowls, it is impossible to de- 
scribe " the " Hen Louse, for there are so many of them. 
Here is a portrait, Fig. 80, of one of the easiest to 
find, as it is one of the largest, being nearly -^ inch 
long. Unless special care is taken, little chicks, when 
they are first hatched, are sadly afflicted; and the 
feathers on the head are all alive with them. Not only 
common fowls, but all other domestic birds, including 
the delicate pets, such as the canary, and the wild birds 
from the largest to the smallest, are infested by parasites 
— as animals and plants that live upon other animals and 
plants are called. Vermin is the pest of poultry, and 
when chicken-houses get thoroughly infested, it is not 
an easy matter to cleanse them. If the house is washed 



PARASITES UPOH POULTRY. 



191 



with a hot-lime wash, and the roosts are nibbed with a 
mixture of kerosene oil and lard, the lice will be made un- 
comfortable, and if this treatment is repeated a few 
times, the house and also the fowls will be quite free from 
yermin. If the house is, as all poultry houses should be, 
detached from barns and other buildings, it may be 
fumigated. Shut it up tight and close every opening; 
then place a pan of live coals on the ground (or if it 
must be on a wooden floor, put down a few shovelfuls of 
earth, or cold ashes to hold the pan). Throw on a 
handful of lumps of brimstone, and get out quickly, 
closing the door tightly. If the work has been done 
thoroughly, no lice can be found at the 
end of a few hours. The white- wash- 
ing, etc., may then be done. 

In regard to the use of kerosene, it is 
not more effective perhaps than some 
other remedies, but is applied more 
easily than lard, tobacco, sulphur, or 
whitewash. We apply it to the perches 
in the hennery from the common 
lamp-filler. Turn a very small stream 
from the spout, and move the can 
rapidly from end to end of the perch. 
The oil gets upon the feet and feathers, and is soon dis- 
tributed all over the fowl. The lice leave on very short 
notice, and the fowls are entirely relieved. It is a greater 
safeguard against lice on chickens, when first hatched, to 
use the oil in the boxes, before the nest is made for the 
sitting hen. It takes but a small quantity, applied to the 
corners of the box, to keep away insects. Take care that 
the oil does not touch the egg?. In using a substance 
like kerosene about the farm buildings, remember that it 
is inflammable, and must be employed with caution, 
avoiding every chance of fire. 

While the kerosene will destroy vermin by the thou- 




80.— LARGE 
HEN-LOUSE. 



192 



PROFITS Itf POULTRY. 



sands, its effects are not lasting, as it soon evaporates. 
To be effectual, it should be applied to the roosts ana 
wood-work 'frequently, say once a week. 

The red color of some of the lice is due to the blood 
sucked by them from the fowls, as mosquitoes become 
red after dining on human blood. 




CHAPTER XIX. 
RAISING TURKEYS. 

It is a joyful morning to the farmer when he discovers 
his first hrood of young turkeys following the cautious 
tread and the low cluck of the mother, as she leaves her 
nest. The critical season of turkey-raising is now be- 
fore him. Upon his constant care and watchfulness for 
the next three or four weeks depend his success and his 
profits. It is a matter of the first importance that the 
care of the young broods should be committed to some 
one individual. There is no substitute for personal re- 
sponsibility in carrying the young chicks through their 
first month. They are very tender, and they have many 
enemies from the start. The mother bird has wise in- 
stincts to guard her brood against harm in a state of 
nature, but in domestication she needs close watching 
to guard them against birds and beasts of prey, against 
roaming for food too early in the morning, and especial- 
ly against storms. " If the farmer cannot attend to this 
himself, he should put the care upon some one else who 
Avill look after the broods at short intervals during the 
day, and see them properly sheltered for the night. 
Women who have a fondness for the work make the best 
guardians of the young broods. Each little flock should 
be counted every night, as they come to their roost, and 
if any are missing they should be looked after. They 
can be controlled in their wanderings, at first, by fre- 
quent feeding. Like all other birds, they follow the feed 
very strictly, and will not wander very far from food 
that is regularly and bountifully supplied. 

Why is it that one farmer will raise nearly every tur- 
(19$ 13 



194 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

key-chick that comes out of the shell, and do this nine 
years out of ten, without much respect to wet or dry 
seasons, while another loses from a half to three quarters 
with about the same uniformity ? We know of men 
with whom success is the established rule. They are 
very systematic in this, as in all their other business 
We visited one of these thrifty farmers, who raised one 
hundred and sixty-five turkeys last year from nine hens, 
and upon inquiry found that he did about the same thing 
every year. We wanted to know just how he managed 




Fig. 81.— BRONZE TURKEY. 

to secure this uniform result, and found him communi 
cative. He insists upon good stock to begin with — tin 
best always selected to breed from. Then he places 
great reliance upon regular feeding during the fall and 
winter, so that the nock becomes very gentle, and the 
hens make their nests immediately about the sheds and 
barns in places prepared for them. This is a great safe- 
guard against foxes, skunks, crows, hawks, and other 
creatures that destroy the birds or their egg?. When 
the young first, come off the nest, they are confined in 



RAISING TURKEYS. 195 

pens for a few days until they are strong enough to fly 
over a board inclosure one foot high. He feeds fre- 
quently with coarse corn-meal and sour milk until four 
o'clock in the afternoon. He found in his experience 
that he lost a good many chicks from the food hardening 
in the crop. There is danger from over-feeding. As 
the chicks grow the sour-milk diet is increased, and 
during the summer it is kept constantly in a trough for 
them. They are exceedingly fond of sour-milk and 
buttermilk, and they grow very rapidly upon this diet. 
An incidental advantage, and a very important one, he 
thinks, is that the young birds are prevented from stray- 
ing very far from the house. They return many times 
during the day to the buttermilk trough for their favor- 
ite food. This, with Indian meal, constitutes their 
principal food until midsummer, when insects are more 
abundant, and they wander farther from the house. 
This method can easily be tried on dairy farms. 



TURKEY ROOSTS. 

The turkey instinctively goes to roost at nightfall, 
and in its native haunts takes to the highest trees, in 
order to be safe from numerous enemies. The domes- 
ticated bird has the same instinct, and prefers the 
roofs of buildings, or the branches of trees, to any perch 
under cover. Yet, if taken in hand when the broods 
are young, turkeys can be trained to roost in almost any 
place not under cover. For safety the roost should be 
near the house or barn. If left to roost upon fences or 
trees at a distance from the house, they are liable to be 
disturbed, or carried off by foxes, or by poultry-thieves. 
The roost should be some fifteen or twenty feet from the 
ground. Poles of red or white cedar, from three to five 



196 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

inches in diameter, are the best material, and these are 
the most convenient sizes for the scaffolding npon which 
the birds are to roost. The odor of these woods is a 
protection against the vermin which sometimes infest 
the young birds. The size of the poles for the roosts is 
a matter of importance. It is much easier for these 
heavy birds to keep their balance upon a large pole than 
upon a small one. Then, in the freezing weather of 
winter, the feet of the birds are more completely pro- 
tected by the feathers. Another advantage of having 
the turkeys roost together is the saving of manure. If 
the ground under the roost is kept covered with muck, 
or loam, and occasionally stirred, several loads of a valu- 
able fertilizer may be made every season. A roost made 
of durable wood, like cedar, will last for a lifetime. It 
is but a little trouble to train the young broods to go to 
their roost every night. And after the habit has once 
been formed they will go to the same roosting-place regu- 
larly every night. One. of the secrets of success in tur- 
key-raising is in having a secure roosting-place. 



FATTENING TURKEYS. 

It is a goodly sight, as the summer days wane, to 
see the flocks of turkeys coming home from the 
woods and pastures at nightfall with full crops. If the 
farm has not been overstocked with these birds, they 
have very largely made their living upon grasshoppers, 
crickets, worms, and other small fry. The regular food 
they have had has been rather to keep them wonted 
than to supply any lack of forage. As the cool nights 
come on, and the supply of insects declines, the business 
of fattening properly commences. It should be remem- 
bered that plump, well-dressed turkeys not only bring a 



RAISING TURKEYS. 197 

higher price in market, but enhance the reputation of 
the producer, and make his market sure for future years. 
The turkey is one of the finished products of the farm 
and one of the greatest luxuries in the market. The 
farmer should do his best in preparing his flock for the 
shambles. The main business now is to lay on fat, and 
the bird should have, every night and morning, a full 
supply of nutritious and fattening food. Instinctively 
the turkey follows his feed, and if the supply is abun- 
dant at the farm-yard he will not stroll far from home. 
Boiled potatoes, mashed, and mixed with meal, and fed 
moderately warm, is a very excellent feed both to pro- 
mote growth and to fatten. If the pigs can be robbed 
of a part of their milk, and it be mixed with a part of 
the hot potatoes and meal, it will very much improve 
the dish. It is very desirable to supply the place of in- 
sects with some kind of animal food, and butchers' 
scraps is one of the cheapest and most desirable forms of 
food for poultry. Grain should be given at least once a 
day with the soft and warm feed. Nothing is better 
than sound corn. The Northern corn is thought to con- 
tain more oil than that of Southern growth. Old corn 
should always be used for this purpose. The new corn 
keeps them too loose. In feeding, only so much corn 
should be thrown out as the birds will eat up clean. 
Take a little time to feed them, and study aesthetics as 
you watch the iridescent hues upon the glossy plumage. 
There is nothing more charming upon the farm in the 
whole circle of our feathered dependants than a hundred 
or two of these richly bronzed turkeys feeding near the 
corn-crib. You can afford to enjoy the disappearance 
of corn, while the turkeys are increasing in weight. 
Dreams of a full wallet at Thanksgiving and Christmas 
will not harm you as you look on this interesting sight. 



198 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 



HABITS OF THE WILD TURKEY. 

The males commence wooing as early as February ia 
some of the extreme Southern States; but March is the 
opening of the season throughout the country, and 
April the month in which it reaches its highest develop- 
ment. The males may then be heard calling to the 
females from every direction, until the woods ring with 
their loud and liquid cries, which are commenced long 
ere the sun appears above the horizon, and continued 
for hours with the steadiest persistency. As both sexes 
roost apart at this period, the hens avoid answering the 
gobblers for some time, but they finally become less ob- 
durate, and coyly return the call. When the males hear 
this, all within hearing respond promptly and vehe- 
mently, uttering notes similar to those which the domes- 
tic gobblers do when they hear an unusual sound. If the 
female answering the call is on the ground, the males fly 
to her and parade before her with all the pompous strut- 
ting that characterizes the family. They spread and 
erect their tails, depress their wings with a quivering 
motion and trail them along the ground, and draw the 
head back on the shoulders, as if to increase their dignity 
and importance; then wheel, and march, and swell, and 
gobble, as if they were trying to outdo each other in airs 
and graces. The female, however, pays little attention 
to these ceremonious parades, and demurely looks on while 
the rivals for her affection try to outdo one another in 
playing the gallant and dandy. When the strutting and 
gobbling fail to win her, the candidates for matrimony 
challenge each other to mortal combat, and whichever is 
successful in the contest walks away with her in the most 
nonchalant manner. The easy indifference of the hen as to 
which she will follow may not be pleasing to persons im- 
bued with romantic feelings, yet she is only obeying a wise 




Fig, 82,, — WILD TURKEY COCK. 



(199) 



RAISING TURKEYS. 201 

law of nature, which decrees that only the fittest should 
live, and in the lower animal world these are necessarily 
chosen for their physical qualities. 

The battles between the males are often waged with 
such desperate valor that more than one combatant is 
sent to join the great majority, as they deliver very heavy 
blows at each other's heads, and do not give up a contest 
until they are dead, or so thoroughly exhausted as to be 
scarcely able to move. 

When one has killed another, he is said sometimes to 
caress the dead bird in an apparently affectionate manner, 
as if it were very sorry to have been compelled to do such 
a deed, but could not help it, owing to the force of cir- 
cumstances; yet I have seen the winner in a tournament 
in such a rage that it not only killed its rival, but pecked 
out its eyes after it was dead. When the victors have 
won their brides, they keep together until the latter com' 
mence laying, and then separate, for the males would 
destroy the eggs if they could, and the hens, knowing 
this, carefully screen them. The males are often foL 
lowed by more than one hen; but they are not so polyg- 
amous as their domestic congeners, as I never heard ol 
a gobbler having more than two or three females under 
his protection. The adult gobblers drive the young 
males away during the erotic season, and will not even 
permit them to gobble if they can help it; so that the, 
latter are obliged to keep by themselves, generally in 
parties of from six to ten, unless some of the veterans 
are killed, and then they occupy the vacated places, ac- 
cording to the order of their prowess. 

Some aged males may also be found wandering through 
the woods in parties of two, three, four or five, but they 
seldom mingle with the flocks, owing, apparently, to ap j 
proaching old age. They are exceedingly shy and vigilant, 
and so wild that they fly immediately from an imaginary 
danger created by their own suspicious nature. They 



202 PROMS IK POULTRY. 

strut and gobble occasionally, but not near so much as 
their younger kindred. Barren hens, which also keep 
by themselves, are almost as demonstrative in displaying 
their vocal powers, airs, and feathers as the old males, 
whereas they are exceedingly coy and unpretentious when 
fertile. When the season is over, the males keep by them- 
selves in small bachelor parties; but, instead of being ex- 
ceedingly noisy as tbey were in the early part of the 
mating period, they become almost silent. Yet they 
sometimes strut and gobble on their roosts, though, as 
a general rule, they do not, and content themselves with 
elevating and lowering the tail feathers and uttering a 
puffing sound. They keep at this exercise for hours at 
a time on moonlight nights without rising from their 
perch, and sometimes continue it until daylight. 

When the hen is ready to lay, she scratches out a slight 
hollow in a thicket, a cane brake, beside a prostrate tree, 
in tall grass or weeds, or in a grain field, and lines it 
rudely with grass or leaves, and then deposits her eggs 
in it. These, which vary in number from ten to twenty, 
are smaller and more elongated than those of the domestic 
turkey, and are of a dull cream or a dirty white color, 
sprinkled with brownish-red spots. Audubon says that 
several hens may lay their eggs in one nest, and hatch 
them and raise the broods together. He found three 
hens sitting on forty-two eggs in a single nest, and one 
was always present to protect them. 

If the eggs are not destroyed, only one brood is raised 
in a year; but if they are, the female calls loudly for a 
male, and when she is rejoined by one, both keep com- 
pany until she is ready to commence laying again, when 
she deserts him or drives him away. She builds her 
nest in the most secluded spot she can find, and covers 
it carefully with leaves or grass whenever she leaves it. 



RAISING TURKEYS. 203 



GENERAL HINTS ABOUT TURKEYS. 

The greatly increased attention paid to the turkey 
crop in the Eastern States, and in the Southern and 
Western States as well, seems to call for a few more 
notes. Without a good range it will not pay to raise tur- 
keys; they create trouble between neighbors. I have 
found that, when confined to a yard, one turkey will re- 
quire as much food to bring it to maturity as will make 
forty pounds of pork on a well-bred pig. Where they 
can have extensive range, they will pick up most of the 
food they require until autumn. The young are very 
delicate, and the hen must be cooped until they are well 
feathered and able to look out for themselves. The same 
food recommended for chicks is suitable for turkeys. 
Two weeks before marketing, confine them in a small, 
clean pen, and feed them all they will eat, not forgetting 
plenty of fresh water and gravel, and they will fatten up 
quickly and nicely. 



TURKEY-NESTS. 

In the wild state the hen seeks the most secluded and 
inaccessible spot, where there is protection from birds 
and beasts of prey. Security against attack is the main 
thing that instinct prompts her to look out for. A tan- 
gled thicket of briers, a sheltering ledge, a hollow 
stump, a clump of brush filled with decaying leaves, 
suit her fancy. With little preparation she drops her 
eggs upon the bare ground in these secluded places. 
Domesticated turkeys usually are left to a good deal of 
freedom in choosing their nests. Some farmers have 
prepared nests, made of loose stones and boards, or old 
barrels, placed by the roadside, or near the barn, and 



204 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

slightly covered with old brush. These are often ex- 
posed to the attack of weasles and skunks, and other 
enemies, besides being unsightly. If there are no pre- 
pared nests they will seek the nearest bit of woods, or 
patch of brush, or fence-corner, where they can find 
shelter. The whole turkey crop for the year is put in 
jeopardy by this want of preparation for the laying and 
breeding season. By having a yard devoted to fruit 
trees and turkeys, and an open shed with sliding doors, 
you have complete control of the birds, their eggs and 
their young, during their tender age. The risk is re- 
duced to a minimum, and the turkey crop is as sure as 
any other raised on the farm. The nests under the 
shed should be about three feet square, and arranged 
with slats in the front so that the birds may be shut in 
or out at pleasure. The common A-shaped hen-coop 
on a larger scale, the peak of the gable being about 
three feet high, is a very good arrangement. If the 
turkeys are fed under the shed for a few weeks before 
the laying season, they will take kindly to the nests pre- 
pared for them. 



EARLY BROODS. 

Early broods are very desirable on several accounts, 
but there is a good deal of risk in having the chicks 
come out before the grass is well started, and there is 
settled weather. In the latitude of 40°, and north ward, 
it is quite early enough to have the chicks out by the 
middle of May. Birds hatched from the middle of May 
until Jnly 1st will have five or six months in which to 
grow before Thanksgiving, and that is as soon as they 
will be wanted for slaughter or to sell as stock. The 
cold storms of April and early May are likely to prove 
fatal to the chicks. The laying of the hens is very 



RAISING TURKEYS. 205 

mucli within the control of their owner, and can be 
hastened or retarded by more or less feed at his pleas- 
ure. Some of our best breeders feed light after the first 
of February for the purpose of delaying the laying sea- 
son. They do not care to have chicks before the first of 
June. Coming out at that date, they feel reasonably 
sure of raising the large majority of the hatch. After 
the birds have begun to lay, and get used to the nests, it 
is well to feed generously to keep up the strengh of the 
hen while she is laying, and so prepare her for the sit- 
ting season. The number of eggs that a hen will lay 
depends a good deal upon the feed. The average is 
from fifteen to thirty eggs, while in some cases among 
the thoroughbreds they keep on laying all summer with- 
out manifesting any desire to sit upon the nest. These 
perpetual layers become very much exhausted in the 
fall, and it takes them a long time to recover. 



SETTING THE HEN-TURKEYS. 

As turkeys require a good deal of attention while 
they are upon their nests, they should be in one yard, 
or building, or at least not far distant from one another, 
to take up as little time as possible in the frequent 
visits. In making the nests, study nature and build 
upon the bare earth, lined with leaves or hay, or any con- 
venient soft substance; give the eggs room enough, and 
yet have the nest deep enough to prevent their rolling 
out of the nest. A hen will lay from fifteen to thirty 
eggs at a litter, but they cannot always cover the whole 
litter. Very large old birds will cover twenty eggs. 
Smaller birds will cover from fifteen to eighteen, and 
this is about the right average. If you have a dozen 
turkey-hens in your flock, which is about the right 
number for a good range, it will not be difficult to set 



206 PROFITS IN" POULTRY, 

several birds at once, arid these may be arranged in 
nests within a few feet of each other. With artificial 
or addled eggs you can keep a part of the liens upon 
their nests a few days, until three or four are ready. 
Then select eggs of as near equal age as possible and 
put them under the hens. If the hens, close together, 
are not set at the same time, there is danger when the 
first begins to hatch that her neighbors will hear the 
peep of the first chicks, and become uneasy, and perhaps 
forsake their nests. If all in the group of three or four 
nests are hatching at the same time, there is no trouble 
of this kind. Before putting the eggs into the nest, it 
is well to sprinkle a little snuff among the hay to guard 
against insects. If any of the eggs get fouled with the 
yolk of a broken egg before or after setting, the shells 
should be carefully cleaned with tepid water, to secure 
their hatching. Two or three turkeys will sometimes 
lay in the same nest. This will not do any harm in the 
earl j, part of the season, but they should be separated 
before setting, and only one bird allowed to the nest. 
This may be done by making nests near by and putting 
a porcelain or addled egg in each new nest. Turkeys 
are not apt to crowd on to an occupied nest when a 
vacant one is close by. The group of hens that sit 
together, and bring off their young at the same time, 
will naturally feed and ramble together, and this will 
save a good deal of time in looking after them. The 
turkey is a close sitter, and will not leave her nest for 
several days at a time. Grain and water should be kept 
near the nests. 



FEEDING AND RAISING THE CHICKS. 

One of the secrets of successful poultry-raising is t\w 
art of feeding properly, not merely at regular inter- 
vals, but on the most suitable food, and keeping the 



RAISING TURKEYS. 20? 

chicks growing as rapidly as possible from the very start. 
It is very poor economy to stint turkeys, especially 
young growing stock; for when once stunted, it takes a 
long while to recover, if it does occur at all. For the 
first twenty-four hours after the chicks emerge from th A , 
shell, they should remain under the hen unmolested, 
both to dry and gain strength and hardiness. They do 
not require any food, as the store nature provides will 
last over this time. As the chicks hatch sometimes irreg- 
ularly, the older ones can be cared for in the house un- 
til the others are ready to be taken away, when the hen 
and her brood can be removed to a roomy coop, with a 
tight-board bottom and a rain-proof roof. They should 
he fed five times daily, but only just what they will eat 
up clean. The first food should consist of stale bread 
moistened in water or in fresh milk — the milk is decidedly 
preferable. Do not wet the food, as very moist or 
sloppy food will cause sickness and a high rate of mor- 
tality among young, tender birds. If milk can be 
spared, give it to them freely in place of water. 

The too lavish use of corn-meal has caused more deaths 
among young chicks than has cholera among grown 
fowls. Until the chicks are half-grown, corn-meal should 
be but sparingly fed ; but after that time, when judi- 
ciously used, is one of the very best and cheapest foods 
for fowls and chicks. Nine-tenths of the young turkeys 
and guinea-fowls which die when in the " downy" state 
get their death-blow from corn-meal, as it is a very com- 
mon practice (because it is so " handy" and suits lazy 
people so well) to merely moisten with cold water some 
raw corn-meal and then feed it in that way. 

Young chicks relish occasional feeds of cracked wheat 
and wheat screenings; while rice, well boiled, is not only 
greedily eaten by the chicks, but is one of the very best 
things that can be given. It frequently happens that 
damaged lots of rice, or low grades of it, can be bought at 



208 PKOFITS IN POULTRY. 

low figures in the cities. As it increases so much in bulk 
in cooking, it is not an expensive food for young chicks, 
even at the regular retail price, though it would not or- 
dinarily pay to feed it to full-grown fowls very liberally 
or very frequently. In the absence of worms, bugs, etc., 
during early spring, cheap parts of fresh beef can be well 
boiled and shredded up for the little chicks; but care 
must be taken not to feed more frequently than once in 
two days, and only then in moderation. This feeding 
on meat shreds is very beneficial to young turkeys and 
guinea chicks when they are " shooting" their first quill 
feathers, as then they require extra nourishment to re- 
pair the drain on immature and weakly bodies. 



LOSS OF WEIGHT IN DRESSING TURKEYS. 

Farmers frequently have occasion to sell turkeys by 
live weight, and wish to know what is the fair relative 
price between live and dead weight. In turkeys dressed 
for the New York market, where the blood and feathers 
only are removed, the loss is very small. For the East- 
ern markets the head is cut off and the entrails are 
taken out. This makes a loss of nearly one tenth in 
the weight. A large gobbler was recently killed weigh- 
ing alive 31-J- lbs. After bleeding and picking he 
weighed 29-J- lbs., a loss of 2 lbs., or about one-fifteenth. 
When ready for the spit he weighed 28 j- lbs. — a loss of 
3£ lbs., which is very nearly one-tenth of the weight. 
Where the market requires the New York style of dress- 
ing, and the price is 15 cents a pound, a farmer could 
afford to sell at 14 cents live weight, or less, if he 
counted the labor of dressing anything. In the other 
style of dressing, if the price were 20 cents, he could sell 
for 18 cents, or less, live weight, without loss. Farmers 



RAISING TURKEYS. 209 

who have never tested the loss of weight in dressing 
sometimes submit to a deduction of throe or four cents 
a pound from the middlemen, who are interested in 
making this large difference. We have no means of 
knowing the exact cost of dressing turkeys, but half a 
cent a pound would probably be a large estimate. The 
prevailing higher price of dressed turkeys in the Eastern 
market is not owing simply to the difference in the style 
of dressing, though this has something to do with it. 
A large portion of the turkeys that go to the Boston and 
Providence markets are of extra large size, principally of 
the Bronze and Narragansett breeds and their crosses, 
raised in Ehode Island and Eastern Connecticut, where 
the farmers make it a specialty. Whole flocks of young 
birds Avill dress about 12 lbs., on the average, at Thanks- 
giving, and 14 lbs. or more at Christmas. Young cocks 
frequently reach 18 to 20 lbs. dressed during the winter, 
and adult cocks 28 to 30 lbs. These birds are prepared 
for the market in the nicest style, and are shipped by 
the ton for the holidays. They always bring extra 
prices. 
14 




CHAPTER XX. 

RAISING GEESE. 

With suitable facilities, breeding geese is profitable, 
and many a farmer's wife has secured home comforts 
from this source. It is useless to breed geese with too 
little room ; they must have their liberty to do well, and 
be furnished with large grass runs, as they are great 
graziers. Their weakness for fruit, and their ability to 
trample down small fruits and vegetables, make them 
undesirable where there are fruit and vegetable planta- 
tions. They must be kept away from young chicks, or 
they will soon destroy them, especially during the hatch- 
ing season, when they are unusually cross and combat- 
ive. 

Choose only those free from all defects, either indi- 
vidual or hereditary. It is the rule with good breeders 
to keep the same birds for years successively for breed- 
ing, as the progeny is usually stronger and healthier 
from such stock than from younger ones. The ganders, 
however, rapidly depreciate with age, and also early pair 
off with single females. In these cases, a young and 
vigorous gander is substituted. It is best to make the 
selection for breeding in autumn, just before culling out 
for fattening, or selling stock to others. No amount of 
persuasion, or tempting high price, should induce the 
breeder to part with his best birds ; for if he desires to 
steadily improve his flock, no matter whether it is of so- 
called common birds or thoroughbreds, he mu&t take 
his pick first of the very cream of the flock. 

If geese can be set early, two broods may be obtained 
from each female, thus securing large flocks for each sea- 
son's sales. The later-hatched birds, generally having 
(210) 



RAISTKG liEESL. 211 

favorable weather, will make good weights by late fall, 
especially if given extra care and food. These late birds 
make excellent eating about Christmas-time. The goose 
usually makes her own nest, though it is well to help 




Fig. 83.— PAIR OF TOULOUSE. 



her a little. She is a careful and constant mother, but 
her love for the water must be restrained until the gos- 
lings are a few weeks old, for many dangers, in the form 
of musk-rats, snakes, turtles, etc., lurk at the water's 
edge. 



212 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

Goslings do not require much extra feed, if they can 
get all the fresh and tender grass they want, and unless 
this can be supplied, breeding geese is not profitable. 
For the first few weeks some food must be given; this 
should ne\ r er be corn-meal, for nine- tenths of the mor- 
tality among fledgelings, of the various kinds of domestic 
fowls, can readily be traced to feeding corn-meal. Cot- 
tage cheese, or dry curds of sour milk in which red pep- 
per (Cayenne) has been sprinkled, is a very good food, 
and a quantity of fresh onion-tops, chopped up fine, is 
relished by them. Stale bread soaked in fresh milk 
makes an excellent food for all young birds, and the way 
they develop when fed liberally with it will astonish any 
one who has not before tried it with his fowls. The 
greater part of the management of geese consists in 
keeping them (the goslings) free from dampness while 
they are still " downy," guarding them from the attacks 
of rats, cats, weasels, and other of their enemies, in 
housing them well at night, and in giving them a fresh 
grass run as often as possible. When they become fully 
feathered, they are abundantly able to take care of them- 
selves ; many breeders then let the geese find their own 
food, which they can readily do on a large farm, until 
fattening time, or when the grass begins to get short, 
when they are brought up, and liberally and regularly 
fed with corn, still being permitted to have their liberty, 
until a week or two before they are to be killed, when 
they are penned up and fed with all they can eat. 



VARIETIES. 

In breeding for mere fancy, no doubt the odd or hand- 
some kinds, like the white or the brown China, etc., 
would be satisfactory ; but where heavy weights, hardi- 




Fig. 84. BROWN CHINESE GEESE. 

The color of head of the Brown Chinese is brown ; knob dark brown or 
black; neck light brown or grayish brown, with a dark stripe from 
the head down to the body. The body is dark brown, breast gray- 
ish brown, and the under parts are a shade lighter in color. The 
China is one of the best layers of all breeds, and the quality of 
flesh is extra good. Size rather small. 



(213) 



KAISING GEESE. ■ 215 

ness/and prolificness are concerned, the Toulouse and 
Embd en are superior to all other sorts, and mature early. 

The common gray goose possesses the markings of its 
parent, the wild goose of Europe and Asia, known in 
England as the " Gray Lag." The fine variety known 
as the Toulouse has the same colors, except that the dark 
plumage is of much richer hues, and, by contrast at least, 
the light feathers whiter, while the bill and legs are of a 
deep orange color. The Toulouse geese early develop a 
deep-hanging fold of skin, pendent, like the keel of a 
boat, beneath the body. The evidence that the breed 
originated in the vicinity of Toulouse, in France, is 
meagre. Nevertheless, we cannot countenance the sug- 
gestion that they received their name because their skin 
was too loose for them. The first of the variety which 
were seen in England came, it is said, from Marseilles, 
in the south of Fiance. Those purchased probably came 
from Toulouse to Marseilles, for this name is applied to 
no distinct variety in France. 

Toulouse geese, when not inordinately forced for ex- 
hibition, are hardy, early layers, and reasonably prolific, 
often raising two broods of goslings a year. The young 
early take care of themselves on good pasture, and grow 
with astonishing rapidity. It is not well to let them 
depend wholly upon grass, but at first to give a little 
wet-up oatmeal daily, and afterwards a few oats or hand- 
. fuls of barley, thrown into a trough or shallow pool to 
which they have access. These fine fowls attain, on a 
good grass range, nearly double the weight of common 
geese, and, forced by high feeding, a pair have been known 
to reach the weight of sixty pounds. Twenty-pound 
geese are not rare. Early goslings, if well fed, will at- 
tain that weight at Christmas. The fact is, that com- 
mon geese make a poor show upon the table unless they 
are very fat. This is distasteful to many persons, and 
they can hardly be very fat before the late autumn, be- 



lie 



PftOPITS IN POULTRY. 



cause w e need grain to fatten them. With this variety, 
however, and the Embden, which matures early and at- 
tains a great weight also, it is different ; the goslings are 
heavy before they are fat, carry a good deal of flesh, and 
are tender and delicious early in the season, when simply 
grass-fed, or having had but little grain. 




EMBDEN GEESE. 



In breeding geese, the surplus stock of goslings is killed 
off every year. None need be saved for wintering and 
breeding, except it may be well to keep one or two fine 
geese to take the places of old birds killed or hurt by 
some accident. Geese lay regularly, brood and rear their 
goslings well for fifty to eighty years, and it is said grow 



RAISING GEESE. 21? 

tougher every year. So if one has a good breeding goose, 
one which does her own duty well, and is reasonably 
peaceable towards other inhabitants of the farm-yard, it 
is best to keep her for years. Sometimes a goose will be 
very cross, killing ducklings and chickens, attacking 
children, etc. Such a one is a fit candidate for the spit. 
Ganders are generally much worse, and usually one 
more than five or six years old becomes absolutely un- 
bearable. So provision is naturally made to replace the 
old ganders every three or four years. It is, besides 
necessary to do so, for, though a young gander will at- 
tend four geese very well, an old one confines his atten- 
tions to one only, and often proves infertile at six or 
eight years old, getting crosser all the time. 



PLUCKING. 

A part of the profit of keeping geese depends upon 
their yield of feathers. When geese are bred carefully 
for exhibition and sale at high prices, only old ones 
should be plucked, and they only once or twice in the 
season. But when raised for market, the old ones may 
be plucked three times, and the young ones once before 
killing time, and the flock ought to yield, on an average, 
18 to 20 ounces of dry feathers, besides considerable 
down at the summer pickings. 

Common geese will yield about a pound of feathers a 
year, if close picked, and they are often picked cruelly 
close. This is unnecessary, for at the right time the 
feathers have a very slight hold, and the operation of 
plucking them is painless. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

RAISING DUCKS. 

PKOFITS IN" DUCK EAISING. 

Most farmers have a prejudice against water-fowl, 
especially ducks. They tolerate geese better than ducks, 
because they will forage for themselves, and live wholly 
on grass through the summer, after the goslings arc 
started. Ducks will not bear neglect so well; they art 
more prone to wander and get lost or devoured in 
swamps or brooks. They have a foolish way of drop 
ping their eggs in water, and of following a brook, or 
river, into neighboring farms; unless they have suitable 
quarters, and receive regular attention, it is a good deal 
of trouble to look after them. The half-starved duck 
disposes of a good deal of corn at a single feed, remem- 
bering the past and anticipating the future. The slip- 
shod farmer is prejudiced against the bird, and will 
have none of him. But the duck has so many good 
qualities, matures so early, and furnishes so rare a re- 
past, that the owner of a country home with cultivated 
tastes can hardly afford to do without a duck-yard. 
The flesh, in our esteem, is the greatest delicacy raised 
upon the farm; and if they were much more troublesome 
than we have ever found them, we should not hesitate 
to keep them. The fact is, a large part of the trouble 
is owing to sheer neglect, and the reputation of the bird 
as a gross feeder is owing to irregular supplies of food. 
If grain or other food is kept within reach, they devour 
no more than other fowls that mature as rapidly. If in 
suitable quarters and well fed, they get most of their 
growth in four months, and can be marketed in August 
(218) 



HAISING DUCKS. 219 

at the watering-places when prices are highest. The 
impression that a pond or brook is necessary to raise the 
ducklings is erroneous. They need no more water than 
chickens until they are three months old, and are better 
off without any pond to swim in. We have raised fifty 
in a season in a quarter-acre yard, and found them no 
more troublesome than chickens. The best mothers are 
hens, and we prefer the Asiatic fowls, either Cochins or 
Brahmas. A hen of these breeds will cover nine or ten 
eggs. We have found an old barrel with a board at the 
end to fasten the bird upon her nest, as good as a more 
expensive coop. They are let off regularly at noon 
every day, when they have a half hour's range green 
food, grain and water. The young ducks are fed with 
some fresh animal food and coarse Indian meal scalded ; 
this, varied with chopped cabbage, turnips, worms, and 
liver, is the staple food until they are three months old. 
They do much better on soft food than on grain. 

The paradise of ducks is a location on a tide-water 
stream or cove, where there is a constant succession of 
sea-food with every tide. If furnished with a little 
house or pen upon the shore, and a variety of grain, 
they will come home regularly every night and lead an 
orderly life. The eggs are usually laid at night, or early 
in the morning, and very few of them need be lost. Of 
the four varieties, Rouen, Aylesbury, Cayuga, and 
Pekin, we give the preference to the last for size, early 
maturity, abundance of eggs, hardiness, and domestic 
habits. 

A plan of a convenient house is shown by the accom- 
panying engraving. For fifty to one hundred ducks it 
should be thirty feet long, twelve feet wide, and from 
four feet high at the front to six or eight feet in the 
rear. Entrance doors are made in the front, which 
should have a few small windows. At the rear are the 
nests; these are boxes open at the front. Behind each 



220 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



nest is a small door through which the eggs may oe 
taken. It is necessary to keep the ducks shut up in the 
morning until they have laid their eggs, and a strip of 
wire netting will be required to inclose a narrow yard 
in front of the house. Twine netting should not be 
used, as the ducks put their heads through the meshes 
and twist the twine about their necks, often so effectively 




Fig. 86.— DUCK HOUSE. 



as to strangle themselves. To avoid all danger, the 
wire fence should have a three or four-inch mesh. 

Among the most profitable varieties as layers are the 
Pekins. A fair yearly product for a duck in its second 
year is a hundred and twenty eggs, and sixty to eighty 
for a yearling. Their feathers are of the best quality, 
white, with a creamy shade; and five ducks weighing 
five pounds each have yielded, killed in the winter-time 
when fully feathered, more than one pound in all. It 
will be right to pick the ducks when moulting is begin- 




(221) 



KAESING DUCKS. ZZ'd 

ning; the feathers are then loose and are picked easily 
and without injury. This will considerably increase the 
yield of feathers, and will prevent a useless loss; other- 
wise the loose feathers from twenty ducks will be found 
spread over their whole range. 

It by no means follows because ducks are a water-fowl 
that much water is required to raise them. Yet this is 
a very common impression, and multitudes of farmers 
and villagers deny themselves the enjoyment and profit 
of a flock of ducks because they have no pond or stream 
near the house. It is true that adult ducks will get a 
good deal of their living out of a water privilege, if they 
have one. It is not true that water to swim in is essen- 
tial to their profitable keeping. They want some range 
and grass and good fresh water to drink every day. 
Ordinarily, ducks can be profitably raised wherever hens 
can be. They make a pleasing variety in the poultry- 
yard, and all who have room for them can enjoy them. 
The first thing in raising ducks is to get them out of 
the shell, and for incubation we decidedly prefer hens 
to ducks. They sit more steadily, and take much better 
care of the young. The wetting of the ducks' eggs daily 
in the last two weeks of incubation is even more neces- 
sary than for hens' eggs. This is sometimes done by 
sprinkling water upon them, but we think it better to 
take them from the nest and put them in a basin of 
tepid water about blood-warm. This moistens the whole 
shell without chilling the embryo life within, The 
ducklings out of the shell may be allowed to remain 
upon the nest with the hen for a day. The hen may 
then be put upon a grass-plat, under a coop, where the 
ducklings can go in and out at pleasure. Or if the hen 
is allowed liberty, the ducklings should be confined in a 
small pen from which they cannot escape. A dozen in 
a pen ten feet square is enough for the first two weeks. 
For water they only want a shallow pan — so shallow 



224 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

that they cannot swim, and in which they can wade at 
pleasure. The water should be changed often and kept 
in good drinking condition. For the first food nothing 
is better than the yolk of hard-boiled eggs or boiled 
liver, chopped very fine. The food had better all be 
cooked fol the first week. It may then gradually be 
changed to coarse scalded Indian meal, oatmeal, wheaten 
grits, or rice, as suits the convenience of the feeder. 
Bread-crumbs and sour milk are excellent food, as are 
angle-worms and snails. Ducklings are quite as good as 
chickens at devouring insects, and nothing seems to 
narm them but rose-bugs, against which they should be 
jealously guarded. For this reason they should be kep J 
away from grape-vines and other plants specially attrac- 
tive to these insects. As the ducklings grow older they 
may have more liberty and a greater variety of food. If 
they have not plenty of grass, its place should be sup- 
plied by lettuce, onions, cabbage, or other green succu- 
lent food. If you desire exhibition birds of the largest 
size, it is particularly important that the ducklings 
should be fed regularly, and at frequent intervals, hav- 
ing all the food they can digest. Five times a day is 
none too frequent feeding. We have usually succeeded 
quite as well with ducks as with chickens wi a village 
yard. When grown, we give them a larger range. 



AN ARTIFICIAL DUCK-POND. 

Ducks and geese may be raised successfully without 
any pond or stream; yet some prefer to give them an 
abundance of water, and such can make an artificial 
pond on the plan shown next page. This is a wooden 
box ten inches deep and four feet square, or it may be 
two feet wide and six or eight feet long. This is set in 



RAISING DUCKS. 



225 



the ground, except the down-hill side, which is partly 
exposed, and provided with a short spout placed within 
half an inch of the top, to carry off superfluous water. 
A peg is inserted at the bottom for drawing on 2 the 
water when desired. Water may be conducted to the 
box by a pipe from a spring, underdrain, small brook, 
or from the well, by sinking a half-barrel between the 
pump and pond, and filling it with water every day or 
two, and so graduating the flow that it will merely drop 
from the barrel through the pipe into the wooden box. 




AN ARTIFICIAL DUCK POND. 



THE CARE OF DUCKS. 

Ducks are a very pleasant feature of farm-yard sur- 
roundings. In the last of winter and early spring they 
are sociable and busy enough, especially on warm days, 
and begin to lay very early. The duck almost always 
lays her egg between six and nine o'clock. So the flock 
must be kept shut up until all have laid. We have 
found ducks to do better if they can be confined at night, 
in winter, in a shed where the horse manure is thrown 
out, than anywhere else. The heaps of manure heai 
somewhat, and the ducks enjoy the warmth. It makes 
them lay early, and the eggs are not likely to freeze if 
15 



226 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

we get severe " snaps/' Barley and oats are excellent 
feed for ducks. If these or any grains are thrown into 
a shallow tub, or trough, they will soak and be all the 
better relished. Pekin Ducks are among the best layers, 
by far the best in our experience, laying not unfrequent- 
ly sixty to eighty eggs each, in the spring, and often 
again in the autumn, if the weather is warm. If ducks 
are not confined at night, they will make nests in some 
hedge-row or secluded spot difficult to find, and one will 
become broody after laying sixteen to twenty eggs, or as 
soon as she has a good clutch. When confined as we 
suggested, they rarely make nests, but drop their eggs 
about anywhere. Ducks are very fond. of water-cress, and 
if they have access to the water-cress bed at the spring, 
there will soon be none left for the salad-bowl. Wire 
netting, a foot in height, will form an effectual barrier 



PEKIK DUCKS. 

The Pekin Duck was unknown in this country or 
Europe previous to the spring of 1S?3. The following 
is a brief account of their importation. Mr. McGrath, 
of the firm of Fogg & Co., engaged in the Japan and 
China trade, in one of his excursions in China first saw 
these ducks at the city of Pekin, and from their large 
size, thought them a small breed of geese. He succeeded 
in purchasing a number of the eggs, and carried them 
to Shanghai, where, placing them under hens, he in due 
time obtained fifteen ducklings sufficiently mature to 
ship in charge of Mr. James E. Palmer, who was about 
returning to America. He offered Mr. P. one half the 
birds that he should bring to port alive, and the latter, 
accepting the offer, took charge of them. Six ducks 
and three drakes survived the voyage of 124 days, and 



RAISING DUCKS. 227 

were landed in New York on the 13th of March, 1873. 
Leaving three ducks and two drakes, consigned to 
parties in New York, to be sent to Mr. McGrath's 
family (who never received them, as they were killed and 
eaten in the city), Mr. P. took the three remaining 
ducks and drake to his home at Wequetequoc, in Ston- 
ington, Conn. They soon recovered from the effects of 
their long voyage, and commenced laying the latter part 
of March, and continued to lay until the last of July. 
They are very prolific, the three ducks laying about 325 
eggs. 

The ducks are white, with a yellowish tinge to the 
under part of the feathers ; their wings are a little less 
than medium length, as compared with other varieties ; 
they make as little effort to fly as the large Asiatic fowls, 
and they can be as easily kept in enclosures. Their 
beaks are yellow ; necks long ; legs short and red. When 
the eggs are hatched under hens, the ducklings come 
out of the shell much stronger if the eggs are dampened 
every day (after the first fifteen days) in water a little 
above blood heat and replaced under the hen. 

The ducks are very large, and uniform in size, weigh- 
ing at four months old about twelve pounds to the pair. 
They appear to be very hardy, not minding severe 
weather. Water to drink seems to be all they require 
to bring them to perfect development. 

I was more successful in rearing them with only a 
dish filled to the depth of one inch with water, than 
were those who had the advantages of a pond and run- 
ning stream. 



AYLESBURY DUCKS. 

White occurring without intermixture of other colol 
in the hair or feathers of animals and fowls is evidence 
of change effected by domestication. This color, or lack 



228 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

of color, becomes a very persistent characteristic. The 
Aylesbury ducks are pure white, with orange legs, and are 
one of the most beautiful of the white breeds of poultry. 
All white fowls are beautiful and attractive. We have 
white breeds of every kind of domestic fowl, and they all 
have such notable excellencies that their admirers claim 
for each that it is the best of its kind. This is notice- 
able in white geese, which have the best plumage; white 
turkeys are most domestic, and white barn-door fowls 
are most prolific. Aylesbury Ducks are claimed to be 
more prolific and to fatten more rapidly for market than 
other large breeds. This variety undoubtedly originated 
in the vicinity of Aylesbury, England, where large num- 
bers are still raised annually for the London market. 
Its characteristics are distinctly marked, namely: Abun- 
dant but close-fitting plumage of the purest white; a beak 
of peculiar form, being long, straight, and broad, and 
set on aline with the forehead; most noticeable, however, 
from its being of a distinct flesh-color; it sometimes in- 
clines to buff, but this is objectionable. The most deli- 
cate pink (as an English breeder enthusiastically said to 
the writer, "pink as a lady's nail") is the color pre- 
ferred; the legs are of a light orange color. Ducks and 
drakes are almost precisely alike, the latter distinguished 
only by the curling feathers of the tail and by the voice, 
or lack of voice. 

This is an old and well-established breed, and in favor- 
able locations breeds very true. Breeders so located 
find it is not difficult to obtain the pink bills without 
?tain of yellow or blemish of dark streaks or specks. 
This is supposed to depend upon the purity of the water, 
and on the gravelly bottom of the brooks with which 
their bills are constantly brought in contact. Exposure 
to the sun tans them, and, from some not well-known 
cause, it is almost impossible to obtain perfect bills in 
many places, though the birds grow large and fine. 



KAISIKG DUCKS. 229 

It is customary in and near Aylesbury to confine the 
ducks in warm houses early in the season, and to induce the 
earliest possible laying, that the young ducks may be mar- 
keted very early in the season, and high prices secured. 
They come to the market just at a season when game 
and other poultry are scarce and high. Now, when the 
Aylesburys'are removed from their home surroundings, 
and, as in this country, are treated like other kinds of 
ducks, they retain this tendency to lay, and hatch a 
brood early in mid-winter, only for the first generation 
from importation, even then to a less degree than the 
imported birds show it. The tendency to lay very early 
would no doubt be maintained if it were encouraged as 
it is at home. In regard to the care of ducks, it is well 
to observe that the more a variety is changed by domes- 
tication, the more attention they need, and usually the 
more profit they yield. Many common ducks ■ lay a 
clutch of perhaps 20 small eggs; in sitting, cover half or 
more, and hatch them out, while the Aylesbury Duck 
will lay 60 eggs or more, but until she begins to show a 
tendency to sit, usually a week or ten days before she 
sits, she makes a sort of nest, and there she deposits her 
eggs. The only way to secure all the eggs is to shut up 
the ducks at night. They will usually lay an egg apiece 
between dawn and eight o'clock; and as soon as each has 
laid, all maybe let out. They all march straight for the 
water; and if let out too soon, some eggs will be almost 
surely found in the bottom of the pond. Ducks are 
voracious and almost omnivorous feeders; they are fond 
of grass and water plants, water-cress especially, and are 
diligent foragers for snails and the little shell-fish of 
fresh-water streams, ponds, and swamps; and, besides, on 
dry land they are indefatigable insect-hunters, young 
ducks being often very useful in a vegetable garden, 
where they gather and destroy many plant-pests. 

A pair of Aylesbury Ducks fit for exhibition ought 



230 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

to weigh at least 12 pounds; in England they often reach 
16 pounds to the pair; and are occasionally heavier by 
one or two pounds, thus almost equaling the weight of the 
heaviest specimens of Eouen Ducks. 



ROUEN DUCKS. 

There is a prevalent belief among farmers that ducks 
are not profitable poultry. This arises naturally from 
several causes. The habits of indolence which some 
possess — the tendency not to hunt their food, but to 
depend upon being fed and the scraps which they pick 
up about the house — lead farmers to contrast them un- 
favorably with the wandering turkeys, which find their 
living and rear their young often in the woods, depend- 
ing only in winter upon the farmer for their food ; and 
scarcely more favorably with dunghill fowls, which during 
the summer months require but little food except what 
they hunt for about the farm. The ducks, besides, 
though some kinds are excellent layers, are heedless 
birds, exposing themselves, their eggs, and young to 
crows, rats, turtles, and other vermin, dropping their 
eggs about, shifting their place of laying if disturbed, 
inconstant as sitters, and chilling their young by taking 
them too soon and too often to the water. Still, all 
these objections may be obviated, in a measure, and 
ducks really pay very well both in flesh and eggs for the 
amount of food they consume. 

The duck is an omnivorous animal — eating almost 
everything vegetable and animal that comes in its way. 
Insects of all kinds, worms, polliwigs, fish, shellfish 
(dead or alive), meat, even that which is partly decom- 
posed, and many greer* vegetables, grass, seeds, gram, 
etc. Withal, its appetite is voracious ; hence it grows 




Fig. 88 (a).— ROUEN DUCKS. 




(231) 



Fig. 88 (6).— AYLESBURY DUCKS. 



RA1SIKG DUCKS. 233 

rapidly and fattens easily. The common tame duck is 
supposed to have descended from the wild Mallard duck, 
Anas boshas, common to this country and Europe. It 
breeds freely with this species, and also with several 
other species of wild duck ; in some cases the progeny 
is capable of reproduction of its kind, in others mule- 
birds or " mongrels" result. The fact that a very dif- 
ferent class of birds is produced where the Mallards are 
crossed with other species and where the common duck 
is so crossed, with other points of difference, throws 
some doubt on the assertion that the Mallard is the 
parent of our common ducks. Besides, efforts to domes- 
ticate the Mallard have not been successful as a general 
thing. We have, however, many wild ducks capable of 
domestication, and the experiment ought to be well 
tried with all, for thus our stock of domestic poultry 
may be essentially increased and improved. 

The Rouen breed is the most highly esteemed of all 
domestic ducks by many duck breeders. Its habits are 
quiet, and so it does not wander about and get lost, as 
ducks do. It attains a great weight, and is unsurpassed 
as a layer. An English writer reports that he has fre- 
quently known a pair of young drakes 9 or 10 weeks old 
to weigh 12 lbs. Sundry writers report very remarkable 
laying performances of the Rouen ducks. One laid an 
egg a day for 85 days ; three ducks from February to 
July laid 334 eggs, besides a few soft ones and five double 
eggs. One of these laid every morning for 92 days. 
The young ducks often lay in autumn a good clutch of 
eggs, and it not unfrequently occurs that a duck which 
is a first-rate layer will manifest no tendency to sit. 
This variety of ducks has, in common with many other 
kinds, great beauty of. plumage, which varies somewhat 
in different individuals. The drakes are heavier than 
the ducks, but the difference is slight in comparison 
with the disparity between the sexes in most varieties. 



£34 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

The beautiful green heads and necks of the drakes, iri- 
descent with purple and copper hues, set off with a clean 
white collar and claret-colored vest, give them a distin- 
guished air which the various colors and distinct mark- 
ings of the back and wings does not detract from. The 
females are brown, each feather being marked with 
black, which gives them a speckled look. 

The only variety which really rivals the Eouen as a 
aseful and economical birds is the Aylesbury. These, a 
nurely white English variety, are beautiful birds and 
ighly esteemed in the markets of Great Britain, as also 
ji the United States, where they are known. They are 
good layers and nurses, not noisy; good feeders, and by 
some decidedly preferred to the Rouen. The eggs are 
white, sometimes inclining to blue, while those of the 
Rouen duck are blue, with thick, strong shells ; of the 
two the Rouen has the reputation of being most hardy. 
Where ducks are raised for breeders > it is a practice 
(founded perhaps on prejudice) to set ducks upon their 
own eggs; but if the young are wanted for market 
simply, the eggs are put under hens. Hens will hatch 
a clutch of duck's some two days quicker than ducks 
will, but it is thought that the young have not so good 
constitutions. Young ducks raised for market often 
get injured by being allowed to go freely to the water. 
They grow faster and stronger if they only have enough 
to drink, at least for several weeks. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 

THE PEA-FOWL. 

Although the pea-fowl is well known as a bird of fine 
feathers, few persons are acquainted with its natural his- 
tory and real merits. It is a good table fowl, and as 
easily reared as the turkey; still it is rarely seen on a farm 
or country place, and then only as an ornament. This 
bird is a native of Asia, from whence have come nearly 
all our gallinaceous fowls, the turkey excepted. In the 
time of Solomon, it was an article of merchandise, and 
was brought with ivory and apes from Tarshish to Judea. 
One species of pea-fowl was found by an English 
traveler, Colonel Sykes, abounding in a part of India, 
where large flocks were kept about the native temples. 
Another Eastern traveler relates that from 1,200 to 1,500 
were seen by him in the passes of the mountain, within 
sight atone time; and he speaks in extravagant terms of 
the brilliancy of their plumage. There are three distinct 
genera, which include several species and varieties, such 
as the Crested, the Black-shouldered, the Javan, the 
Japan, the Iris, the Thibet, the Malay, etc. All the 
domesticated sorts are surpassed hj the wild ones in 
beauty. Culver says of the pea-fowl: "We find in its 
incomparable robe, united, all the brilliant colors which 
we admire separately in other birds; we find all that 
glistens in the rainbow, that sparkles in the mine, the 
azure and golden tints of the heavens, and the emerald 
of the field.'' White, the naturalist, found that the 
feathers of the train do not belong to the tail, but that 
they grow upon the back, the real tail feathers being 
(235) 



236 PROFITS IK POULTRY, 

short, stiff, and brown, about six inches long, and serve 
as a prop to support the immense train. By a peculiar 
muscular action, the long train feathers can be erected 
and spread, and their shafts made to strike together and 
produce a chattering noise. The Pied peacock is white 
upon the wings, belly, and breast; the rest of the plum- 
age is as showy as in the other species. Pure white birds 
are very rare, and highly valued; but from the absence 
of the gorgeous coloring of the common kinds, they suf- 
fer greatly in contrast with the latter. It is not until 
the second year that the difference between the sexes be- 
comes apparent. The bird lives from 20 to 25 years, 
and reaches maturity slowly. The third year the train 
of the cock becomes developed, and it is only when it 
exhibits its full coloring that he is ready to be mated 
with three or four hens. 

The pea-hen lays her eggs on alternate days, and when 
she has produced five or six she will incubate, unless the 
eggs have been removed. She makes her nest upon the 
ground, in a secluded place, beneath the shelter of low 
bushes, long grass, or weeds. The maternal instinct is 
well developed in some hens; in other hens it is so lack- 
ing that they even destroy their own young, or leave 
them to perish from neglect. The period of incubation 
is from 24 to 29 days. The pea-fowls have strong local 
attachments, and they rarely leave the place where they 
have been reared and fed. They are sensible of kind 
treatment, and will become very tame when gently used 
and petted. They have a habit of roosting high, and 
will choose an elevated place on the top of the highest 
tree or buildings to which they can gain access. When 
but three days old, the chicks are able to reach a roost 
two or three feet high; and if they can mount from one 
step to another, they will follow the old birds to their 
highest roosting places. The birds are naturally shy, 
and their treatment must be regulated accordingly. The 



ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 237 

proper feed for the young pea-chicks consists of hard 
boiled eggs, cracked wheat, coarse oatmeal, and bread- 
crumbs; and they will soon hunt after and consume in- 
sects and worms of all kinds. It is necessary to protect 
the young birds from wet and cold, and they require the 
same care which is needed for young turkeys. 



TRAINING PEA-FOWLS TO STAY AT HOME. 

At " Eose Lawn," Paterson, N. J., there is a flock of 
pea-fowls — half a dozen or more. They are confined, or 
rather kept, in a lot of perhaps two acres in extent, which 
has a high fence of wire net, and where they are associ- 
ated with a small herd of deer and farm-yard poultry of 
all sorts. They fly into the tops of the apple-trees to 
roost, but never fly out of the enclosure. Seeing them 
so apparetly contented, day after day, and knowing well 
the restless habits of the bird, especially the male, which 
generally makes himself a nuisance to the whole neigh- 
borhood within half a mile, this domestic trait of these 
birds interested us, and we learned that if one flies out, 
he is condemned to wear a ball and chain, or rather a 
cord and block, for several days. It is thus applied: 
Strong list of woolen goods, or other soft, strong band, 
is passed about the leg of the peacock, so that it cannot 
tighten, and to this is attached a block of hickory or 
other heavy wood, weighing three or four pounds. The 
block should be round or conical, and should have a hole 
through it lengthways, and the cord should pass through 
this, and be well knotted at the end. It must turn in 
the block so as to prevent kinking. These gorgeous 
fowls would be much more frequently kept if it were 
known that they might be so easily trained. 



338 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



JAPANESE BANTAMS. 



These quaint little creatures weigh about a pound and 
a quarter each. The plumage is white, excepting some 




Fig. 89.-BLACK TAILED JAPANESE BANTAM. 

of the wing feathers, the tail, and sometimes the tips of 
the neck feathers, which are black. The less are bright 
ysllcw The tail is the most curious part of this breed 




(239) 



ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 241 

being large, and carried so erect as to nearly touch the 
head. The legs are so short as to be almost invisible, 
and this gives the birds a curious creeping sort of gait 
The little hens are exemplary mothers, and one of them, 
with a brood of tiny chicks, would be the delight of a 
boy or girl, as well as attractive pets for old folks. This 
breed has the virtue, rare amongst bantams, of being 
exceedingly peaceable and quiet. 



ORNAMENTAL WATER-FOWLS. 

In this country we have much to learn in the way of 
utilizing natural waters, whether streams, springs, or 
ponds. Anyplace, anywhere, be it a farm, large or small, 
or merely a country-seat, has its value greatly enhanced 
by the possession of water, whether running or still. Of 
the money value of such water, whether for stock, irriga- 
tion, or as motive power, we do not propose to speak just 
now. The value of water in these respects is as far from 
being appreciated as it is in its ornamental aspects. We 
know of one body of water — a small pond, which is so 
treated by its owner as to be both profitable and orna- 
mental. It is a conspicuous object from the road, and 
being not far from the house, its surroundings are 
planted with a view to ornamental effect. The water is 
at the same time made useful as the pasture-ground for 
a fine collection of water-fowl. The flock contains some 
birds raised for the table, but is largely of the kinds 
known as ornamental, and these are made profitable; the 
place being in a populous vicinity, the birds do their own 
advertising, and there is a sufficient demand for all the 
increase. The practical part of the establishment, in- 
cluding the breeding-houses, coops, etc., is at some dis- 
16 



242 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

tance from the pond and hidden from view by a screen of 
evergreens planted for the purpose. Among the birds 
regarded as both ornamental and useful are the 



SEBASTOPOL GEESE. 

This is a most peculiar variety of the goose, one of its 
peculiarities being that no one knows why it is called 
"Sebastopol." It is said to come from the Black Sea 
country, but even this is doubtful. The characteristic 
of the breed consists in having a large share of its pure 
white feathers, especially of the back, wings, aud tail, 
very long, lax, curled, waved, and frizzled. Thees 
feathers give the birds a somewhat bedraggled look, 
when on land, but impart a most elegant appearance 
when they are on the water. For the rest, though rarely 
weighing ten pounds, they are useful table birds, are 
hardy, prolific, and good sitters and mothers. 



THE WHISTLING DUCES 

are among the ornamental ducks, in which beauty of 
plumage is regarded rather than weight. They are 
from South America, and there appear to be several 
sub-varieties, distinguished mainly by the color of the 
bill, but all agree in having a peculiar whistling note. 
All are very domestic, and remarkably quaint and amus- 
ing in their habits and movements. The birds shown 
in the engraving are known as the " Widow Whistler" 
and the "White-faced Whistler." Their general color is 
a light shade of chocolate, with black below; the head, 
neck, and bill are also black, making the white face all 
the more conspicuous and very attractive. 



ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 



245 



THE AMERICAN WOOD DUCK — OR SUMMER DUCK. 

We have in this country many beautiful varieties of 
wild ducks, some of which we know are capable of do- 
mestication, and more which have not been experimented 
with. One of the former is the " Summer duck " of 
Southern and the " Wood duck " of the Northern States. 
Either name is appropriate, for it is the only duck which 




Fig. 92.— AMERICAN WOOD DUCK. 



remains with us during breeding season, except now 
and then a stray pair of Mallards, and perhaps a pair 
of one or two other kinds are very rarely eeen ; and its 
natural haunts are the deep quiet woods far from the 
dwellings of men. The bird is rather rare in New Eng- 
land, especially so in the Eastern part, more plenty in 
New York, and abundant in Pennsylvania, and to the 
westward and south, wherever a wooded country offers 



246 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

pools and secluded river and lake margins, close to 
which it delights to make its nest and rear its young. 
The engraving represents a beautiful bird, but one not 
familiar with these ducks would hardly credit the cor- 
rectness of an accurate description of its colors. The 
bill and legs are red, the dark feathers of the head ex- 
hibit gorgeous steel-blue, coppery and green iridescence, 
and in some lights are jetty, velvety black, or purple. 
The white feathers on the head and neck, in the queue- 
like tuft of the back of head, and on the shoulders, wing 
covers and sides are all clear, vivid dashes in every case 
contrasted with black bands or bordering of dark, nearly 
black feathers. The back shows the brilliant rainbow 
hues and metallic colors of the head, while the breast is 
of a delicate wine color, spotted with white, and the 
belly white, shading into ash-color on the sides. These 
colors belong to the drakes ; the ducks are similar, but 
much less showy. In Pennsylvania and northward they 
pair in April or May, and the female brings off her brood 
of eight to fifteen in June. They migrate just before 
winter sets in and are very likely to return to the same 
locality. The flesh of the young birds are highly es- 
teemed. Daring the winter they go into the Southern 
States, and are there seen in large flocks. 

This duck has been repeatedly domesticated, so as to 
be as familiar as any denizens of the farm yard. The 
best way to get them is to find the nests, which are usu- 
ally in a hollow tree not far from the water (they use 
an old woodpecker's or gray squirrel's hole if they can 
find one big enough), and transfer the fresh eggs to a 
sitting hen, or else take the very young ducks as soon as 
they are hatchedo 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 
BREEDING AND CROSS-BREEDING. 

The foundation of the breeding of fowls is the same 
as that of the other domestic animals; the rule that 
like produces like, or the likeness of an ancestor. That 
is, if the parents and grandparents are what is wanted, 
the chick will almost always be what is wanted. Find 
two parents that represent the idea that you are breed- 
ing for, and the chick will repeat that idea. 

When show birds are to be bred the sire must be of 
strong constitution, and perfect in color and symmetry. 
The vigorous red color of his head should denote strong- 
vitality. Not only should the individual be perfect, but 
his pedigree should be such as to show that his qualities 
are a family trait. It is thought the male influences the 
color of the chicks more than does the female, while the 
female has fully as much influence in deciding the prac- 
tical qualities of eggs and flesh-making. 

The tendency of the mixed color breeds is to run 
lighter, if left to breed for themselves. Hence, males 
with faded or light jmimage should not be used for 
breeders. Males that are darker colored than wanted can 
often be used to good advantage by mating with light- 
colored hens, thus striking the balance ; but matings 
of light males with dark females are not usually successful. 

Do not select overgrown specimens. Those which 
come up to about the average of the breed, and are not 
too fat, will give best results. This rule applies espe- 
cially to the larger breeds, but may often be disregarded 
with the smaller ones. 

EULES OF I. K. FELCH. 

The following matings are among those recommended 
for some of the leading breeds, by Mr. I. K. Felch, the 
well-known authority: 
(247) 



2-18 



PROFITS IK POULTRY, 



Black or White Breeds. — A metallic-black male 
mated to females of same hard smooth surface color is 
the best for both males and females, but such a cock 




t. Comb. 

a. Face. 

3. Wattle. 

4. Deaf-ears, or Ear-lobe. 

5. Hackle. 

6. Breast. 

7. Back. 

8. Saddle 



9. Saddle-lackles. 

10. Sickles. 

11. Tail-coverts. 

12. True Tail-feathers. 

13. Wing-bow. . 

'44- Wing-coverts forming the "bar." 

15. Secondaries, lower-end, forming 

the wing or lower butts. 



16. Primaries, or Flights, not seer* 

when wing is clipped up. 

17. Point of breast-bone. 

18. Thighs. 

19. Hocks. 

20. Legs, or Shanks. 

21. Spur. 

22. Toes, or Claws. 



FIG. 93. CHART OF POULTRY TERMS. 

mated to females dead black, lacking in brightness and 
metallic surface, will breed fine pullets, but the male 
progeny is generally much poorer than the female. In 



BREEDING AND CROSS-BREEDIXG. 



240 



black there is little to do beyond these two distinctions 
of color. The metallic-hard-finished surface and the 
dull black, if crossed, restore to the progeny the metal- 
lic-black desired. Birds of this cross should be mated 
to those of the metallic-black mating. In solid white 
specimens, the points to consider are purity of plumage 
color, that is, white in web and shaft. Males from yel- 
low females are not satisfactory. Females with yellowish 
tinge and quills must be mated to pure white males. 

Plymouth Koces. — Males with breast of the color 
desired in the females, with yellow back and legs, with 




FIG. 94. BLACK JAVAS. 

neck, back and tail evenly barred, the light shade pre- 
dominating, yet free from any white feathers in flights 
or tail, mated to females in plumage slightly darker 
than, yet accurately described by, the standard. This 
should be the mating to preserve the male line. Again, 
mate cocks like the one described above with females a 
little too light in color. This mating produces good 
females. 

Wtakdottes, Colored. — A male like that in stand- 
ard, except that the breast be black with small white 



250 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



centers, thighs stone color, with fluff dark stone color, 
approaching black. Mate pullets weighing fully five and 
three-quarters to six pounds, full breasts, plnmage of 
same fully laced, yet the white center of good size, and 
to grow smaller in the plnmage and the black lacing 

wider as it approaches the tail, when it 

merges into a full black tail and dark, 

stone-colored fluff, with thighs nearly 

black, beak and shanks 

yellow, comb as de- 
scribed in the ancestors. 

This mating to produce 

one line of sires, and no 

sire should be used from 

any other mating if we 

hope to see this breed 

reach that accuracy and 

uniformity of breeding 

we see in Light Brahmas. 
Light Brahmas. — 

Mate males with hackles 

that have a good, fair, 

black stripe, but edge 

of feathers free from 

any smoky tinge, nearly 

white undercolor and 

cape, wing flights about 

one-half black, coverlets 

of tail black laced with 

FIG. 95. FEATHER OF -. . , , , , 

barred Plymouth white, lesser coverlets 

rock. white. Females 

standard form, intense black stripe in hackle, very 
dark cape, undercolor of back so dark as to show black 
spots in the web but not on the surface, tail black, 
flights black ; standard in other respects. 
Dark Brahmas. — Mating No. 1. Hens that are 





FIG. 96. FEATHER 
OF SILVER LACED 
Of WYANDOTTE. 



BREEDING AND CROSS-BREEDING. 



251 



standard, which were nearly perfect, steel-gray pullets 
in their first year mated to a cockerel, metallic-black in 
breast and thighs, medium dark beak, hackle and sad- 
dle, broad in the black stripe and decided in shade. 
This mating should be made in pro- 
ducing the male line. 

Mating No. 2. Hens that were 
fine as pullets but have become 
bronze-hued as fowls mated to a 
cockerel with a black breast, evenly 
dotted with minute white spots, 
black thighs, hackle and saddle well 
striped, and medium dark beak. 

Partridge Cochins. — Mating 
No. 1. Cockerel weighing ten to 
eleven pounds, hackle and saddle 
rich bay, the black in the same being 
metallic greenish-black, and broad 
in the stripe, metallic-black breast 
and thighs, fluff showing a bronze 
tinge, indicative of rich, brown blood. 
Hens are described in the standard. 
This mating is the best that can be 
made for the male progeny. 

Mating No. 2. Cock weighing- 
eleven to twelve pounds, and of the 
same color as described for cockerel 
in Mating !S T o. 1. Pullets large in 
size, and in color reddish-brown 
ground penciled with a deep brown, 
with standard neck and tail. This 
mating will produce finer females than males. 

Buff Cochins. — The mating most to be coveted 
would be a cock of one even reddish-buff color from 
head to tail, with no white undercolor in him ; his tail 
black, tipped out with chestnut; the coverts chestnut, 




FIG. 97. HACKLE 

FEATHER OF LIGHT 

BRAHMA COCK. 



252 



PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 



streaked with dark color ; lesser coverts reddish-buff, 
and in form standard. To such a sire mate pullets of 
the same rich buff color, free from white in nights and 
undercolor, tail chestnut or huff, dark color showing in 
nights. Pullets fully up to standard weight. With 
such a mating males and females would appear in the 
progeny of a high order. 



SELECTION FOR EGGS. 

The best time of the year to pick out breeding stock 
is when the hens are not laying very well, say in July or 

August. Any hen 
will lay in the spring 
and the best ones can- 
not be selected. As 
soon as the best ones 
have been taken out, 
they are placed by 
themselves and a rec- 
ord kept, in order to 
find the average yield. 
The best laying type 
is usually rather large 
framed and long in 
leg, neck and back, 
fig. 98. typical layer (Leghorn). legs well apart, breast 
well developed, flesh firm, not inclined to fatness, eyes 
bright, never sunken, disposition active, appetite good, 
and great foragers. These characteristics will help in 
selecting layers. Patent contrivances have been invented 
for registering the number of eggs laid by each hen, but 
these have not come into general use. 

The best layers can generally be selected by careful 
observance of the general characteristics above noted. 
Good layers have always strong vitality, and should be 
mated with strong males bred from a noted egg-laying 




BREEDING AND CROSS-BREEDING. 253 

line. It is best, if possible, to have the pick of a large 
flock, and to choose the males, not for fancy points, but 
for the degree in which they possess the typical qualities 
of the breed. Select from the best egg-laying strain, 
not necessarily from the flock which has taken the most 
prizes in the poultry shows. Care of the breeding stock 
is very important ; good feeding will improve the quali- 
ties of any strain. The older breeds will ingress their 
characteristics more strongly than those which have 
been more lately originated. The oldest breeds, like 
the Black Spanish and Games, are likely to be weakened 
by excessive inbreeding, in some strains, and should be 
selected with special attention to health and vigor. 

SYSTEMATIC CROSS-BREEDING. 

The continual advocacy of fancy poultry for common 
farm use is an error. The poultry papers, and most 
agricultural papers, advise the breeding of certain pure 
breeds, as if they possessed merits far superior to the 
barn-dooi fowls and common poultry. This is a mis- 
take. 'No one advocates the use of thoroughbred horses, 
well-bred trotters, pure Percherons or Clydes, pure-bred 
pigs, or sheep, or cattle, to the exclusion of common 
ones, but farmers are urged to improve their common 
stock by breeding up, by gradually introducing better 
blood, and breeding with some definite aim. Thus, our 
common mixed sheep, which are regular breeders, good 
mothers, and have plenty of milk, are crossed with pure 
rams of one of the established breeds. If size is wanted, 
with long wool, the Cotswold is perhaps employed ; if the 
wool is to be improved in fineness without so much 
reference to the mutton, one of the Merino breeds will 
be selected ; while if early lambs of fine quality are de- 
sired, one of the Down breeds is chosen by the raiser. 
This is precisely the course which should be followed by 
farmers in poultry raising. The advantage of grading 



254 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



up common poultry is, however, not so profitable in 
most cases as cross-breeding. This is, properly, the in- 
terbreeding of two pure varieties. We have, however, 
usually no pure breed of fowls upon the farm, and of 
course wish to utilize those which we have. Therefore, 
the first thing to do is to grade up the flock. After two 
or three years, when they have the looks and qualities 
of pure-breds, the hens may be crossed with cocks of 




FIG. 99. CROSS-BRED GEESE (Wild Gray and African). 

another breed, and then most of the advantages of cross- 
breeding will be realized. In this use of pure-bred cocks 
which we recommend, no male bird should run with the 
same flock more than two years. If he is healthy and 
vigorous, rnd his progeny of the first year take strongly 
after him, in form as well as feather, he may well be 
kept the second year to run with pullets of bis own get. 
After three years the blood of the original flock will be 



BREEDING AXD CROSS-BREEDING. 255 

reduced to one-eighth ; after four years to one-sixteenth. 
One may have a flock of hens which have been carelessly 
bred, and into which no fresh blood has been introduced 
for years. They are small, hardy, active, fair layers, 
good sitters and mothers, and get their own living all 
summer — but the garden surfers. How can the flock be 
improved ? This, we conceive, is the question which 
may be put by ninety-nine in a hundred of the keepers 
of hens in the country. The answer suggests itself, but 
first we should know whether eggs, or broilers, or full- 
grown fowls for market (chickens in autumn or w r inter) 
pay best. The farmer must treat his flock of hens 
exactly as he w T ould his flock of sheep or his herd of 
cows, or other stock ; that is, secure the use of full-blood 
males having the desired characteristics. Thus, if he 
wishes eggs, he will buy cocks of some one of those breeds 
famous for the number of eggs the hens lay. Size and 
beauty of eggs may be an object, or simply a large num- 
ber may be most desirable. The French breeds and the 
Spanish usually have large eggs ; Leghorns, eggs of 
medium size ; Hamburgs lay many but small eggs ; 
while all are persistent layers of beautiful white eggs. 
The half-bloods, as a whole, will take after the pure 
breed in a good measure, and in so far may be said to be 
an improvement upon the old stock. The second year 
the three-quarter bloods will closely resemble pure -bred 
ones ; some will only be distinguished from pure-bloods 
by an expert, while others will show r their dunghill 
origin very clearly, and yet, as layers, these may be the 
very best. So improyement goes on. The flock will in 
two or three years assume the appearance of "fancy" 
poultry of the breed selected with which to produce the 
improvement. The question naturally arises, Will they 
be improved ? — be better and more profitable than they 
were before ? Perhaps not for all uses, but as layers, 
yes. The hens will lay more eggs; they will be less 



256 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

inclined to sit ; if they sit at all, they will probably be 
broody only for a few days, and as producers of eggs no 
doubt the flock will be more satisfactory. 

GUIDE TO CROSS-BREEDING. 

By careful selection of the breeds, desirable qualities 
of both may be combined in the cross. Defects in one 
side may be counterbalanced by strong points in the 
other, and the chicks excel either parent in practical 
qualities. The best results are usually obtained upon 
the first cross, and the cross-bred male should not be 
used for breeding. Breed the cross-bred pullets to pure- 
bred males. Experiments after the first cross often 
show defects of remote ancestors. 

The most profitable use of cross-breeding on the farm 
is grading up the flock of common hens with pure-bred 
males of general purpose breeds, or if eggs are specially 
desired, males of the laying breeds. The best plan is to 
use the pure breed each season, raising the cross-bred 
stock. This is the only kind of pure-bred poultry that 
the ordinary farmer will find it worth while to buy, 
namely, the pure-bred males for grading up the flock. 
A selection of the best individuals is of more importance 
than the breed, even. It is best to visit a large flock 
noted for egg production and choose for oneself. Hardi- 
ness and vigor are of more importance than other points. 

The effect of a cross between pure breeds can only be 
determined by experience. While some breeds combine 
well, others, apparently as Avell adapted for crossing, do 
not give good results ; hence the results of actual tests 
must be studied. The objects to be obtained by crosses 
for table use are yellow legs and skin, hardiness, quick 
growth, early maturity, compact shape, abundance of 
breast meat. Some of the most common crosses among 
producers of market poultry are the Leghorn and Light 
Brahma, the White Wyandotte and Brahma, and Plym- 



BEEEDING AND CKOSS-BREEDING. 257 

onth Eock and Brahma. With, the idea of discovering 
other crosses which might equal or surpass those ordina- 
rily made, extensive experiments were conducted at the 
Ehode Island station in 1892, and these remain the most 
accurate and detailed account of crossing breeds which 
can be obtained. Of all the crosses, the chickens from 
the Indian Game and Light Brahma, and Indian Game 
and Burf Cochin, seemed to do the best. Those from 
the White Wyan- 
dotte and Indian 
Game came next, 
remarkable for 
quick growth. The 
Indian Game and 
Golden Wyandotte 
cross was next in 
thrift. The Plym- 
outh Eock and Buff i> 
Cochin cross was 
unsatisfactory, like- ^ 
wise the Dark Brah- 
ma and Silver Wy- 
andotte. 

Indian Game and 
Light Brahma. — 
Cockerel, plumage 
similar to Light 

Brahma but darker, FIG - m cornish indian game hen. 
with some yellow. Larger than Brahma and between 
the tAvo in shape; comb and wattles the same as Brahma. 
Body wide, legs long. Pullet, plumage brown with pen- 
ciled feathers, dark hackles. Eesemble Brown Malay 
hen except in the slight leg feathering. Lay well, eggs 
as large as Brahmas. Each sex is as uniform in size 
and in color as a pure breed. They are hardy, quiet, 
good feeders, and are closely feathered. There was 
17 




258 PROMTS IN POULTRY. 

hardly any loss among the chickens. A very desirable 
cross. 

Indian Game and Houdan. — Plumage black, or 
slightly mixed with white, small crests. Cockerels have 
flesh colored legs, and pullets dark legs. Are active, 
grow quick, and fairly hardy. There is not much dif- 
ference in size between cockerels and pullets. Are uni- 
form in aj^pearance. 

Indian Game and Golden Wyandotte. — In plumage 
and appearance most like Golden Wyandotte. Markings 
uniform. Fairly hardy, quick, active, and plump at 
any age. Disposition rather excitable. Cockerels much 
larger than pullets. But slight loss among chickens. 

Indian Game and Buff Cochin. — None but pullets 
reared. Similar in plumage and appearance to Light 
Brahma cross. Not so closely feathered, legs shorter 
and more feathers on them. Larger and brighter comb. 

White Wyandotte and Light Brahma. — In appearance 
between the two. Both rose and single combs appear. 
Body more stocky than Brahma, legs shorter, plumage 
faded and muddy. Show more red in comb and face 
than Brahmas. Disposition quiet ; good feeders and 
hardy. Cockerels grow very large. 

White Wyandotte and Indian Game. — Plumage simi- 
lar to Silver Wyandotte, dark with gray neck ; breast 
feathers in pullets slightly spangled with white ; legs 
and neck short ; rose comb. Grow quickly, and are 
always plump and hardy. Pullets are excellent layers. 
Cockerels not much larger than the pullets. A desirable 
cross. 

Houdan and Partridge Cochin. — Plumage a mixture 
of the two. Small crests ; legs both light and dark, and 
feathered ; active, quick growers. 

Judging from these experiments, the raiser of market 
poultry will not make a mistake if he crosses Indian 
Game cockerels or cocks on Light Brahma hens, or on any 



BREEDING AND CROSS-BREEDING. 



259 



variety of Wyandotte hens; or Wyandotte males on Indian 
Game hens or Light Brahma hens. It was found that 
Indian Games and their crosses were harder to pluck and 
more difficult to caponize than any other of the. crosses. 

Various crosses were tried the following year at the 
Rhode Island station, but none were found equal to 
those already mentioned. Aseels were crossed with 
White Wyandottes 
and Pea Comb Plym- 
outh Rocks ; Indian 
Game with Lang- 
shans ; Hon dan with 
Langshans and In- 
dian Games ; White 
Game with White 
Brahmas and White 
Plymouth Rocks, and 
White Indian Game 
with Pea Comb Plym- 
outh Rocks. Neither 
the White Indian 
Game, White Game 
nor Aseel was found 
to be as satisfactory 
for the production of 
table poultry as the 
dark Indian Game, 
for use in the practical production of table poultry. 

In crosses made for eggs mainly, suitable combinations 
of the smaller breeds will give the best results. White 
Leghorn on White Wyandotte are excellent layers, and 
pullets can be selected which lay a fairly dark colored 
egg. Crosses of such similar breeds, as White and 
Brown Leghorn, give splendid vigor. White Leghorn 
on Light Brahma, and the progeny bred back to the 
Leghorn :■, has been a popular cross for eggs. 




FIG. 101. ROSE COMB WHITE LEGHORN 
COCKEREL. 

Aseels were found to be un suited 



260 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

The objection to crosses repeated every year is that no 
progress is made beyond the first year, the cross-bred 
males not being desirable for breeding. By grading up 
the flock, however, this difficulty is avoided. Males of 
the same breed are used each successive year, and the 
flock each year becomes more like the pure breed, until 
at last it is practically identical with that breed. But 
being a cross and containing some outside blood, and no 
inbreeding having been practiced, the hens have fine 
vigor and are an improvement on the pure breed. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 
FEEDING FOR GROWTH. 

Chickens intended for layers and breeding stock must 
be kept growing rapidly, but will not bear forcing so 
hard as chickens meant for broilers. When they are to 
be killed and sent to market at eight or ten weeks of 
age, they will endure high feeding and restriction of 
exercise the last two weeks, while the breeding stock 
must be fed for framework and stamina. 

A farmer in one of the shore towns of Massachusetts, 
Mr. L. S. Eichards, who keeps several hundred fowls 
as a branch of his farming operations, who believes in 
the incubator for farm use, and who is very successful 
in the management of both chicks and hens, gives his 
experience as follows : 

The chicks are left in the incubator two clays after 
they are hatched, then they are removed to the brooder, 
which is heated by a kerosene lamp in the rear, outside. 
The brooder is warmed by top heat, through tin pipes 
running on either side within, one in the middle and 
another across the front, all connected, of course, with 
two outlets in the rear portion. I have six brooders, 
each large enough for seventy-five chicks. The first 
week I keep the temperature between 80° and 90°. When 
two weeks old 75° will answer, and at four or five weeks, 
70°. In the bottom of the brooder there is a platform 
slide resting on the lower one and covering it, on which 
the chicks rest. After a few days I pull out the slides 
and remove the droppings, then re-cover with hay seed 
and replace them. They should afterward be cleaned 
every day. Have a sand floor or ground for them to 
(261) 



262 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



run on and pick to grind their food. The first week, if 
cold, I use outside of the brooder a small 75 cent oil stove 
or heater to warm the house for them, especially while 
they are out feeding. 

For the first two weeks they require a great deal of 
warmth, and I am convinced that the cause of death 
among so many small chicks is due to lack of warmth. 
I speak from experience. The same is true with chicks 
brooded by the hen. We have often found an appar- 
ently dead chicken, chilled outside, and brought it to 
life by warming it ; in nine cases out of ten it will re- 
vive and thrive. When the small chicks are out feeding 

in the brooder house 
during the first week, 
watch them more or 
less and see that none 
get chilled. After the 
first week they will gen- 
erally go in and under 
the brooder at their own 
option, and when the 
sun is out and shining 
crowd together in the 
cold day they will get 




FIG. 
UNFERTILE EGG. 



102. 

FERTILE EGG. 



through the glass they will 
sunshine, and during a very 
chilled, even in the sun's rays (unless the house is very 
warm), rather than go under the brooder where it is 
warmer. They like the sun. During the first week I 
have a fine wire shutter with which to close them in 
the brooder when they have been out long enough, and 
always at night for a week, and perhaps two, if cold. 
If not so restrained, they would get out too early in the 
morning, become chilled, and die. After the first week 
or two I do not use it, but let them go out and in at 
will. This, I think, will answer for the incubator and 
brooder. One other point should be mentioned, and 
that is, I should advise one not to touch an incubator 



FEEDING FOR GROWTH. 



203 



until he "has raised chicks successfully by the hen. It 
is one thing to hatch chicks, and quite another to raise 
them successfully. 

In regard to feed for chicks, which, of course, applies 
to chicks with the hen as well as those in the brooder, 
we give them the first day or two, when they are old 
enough to eat, cooked eggs chopped fine. Get the hen 
well filled with corn, or some soft feed, before feeding 
the egg to the chicks, otherwise the hungry hen will 
gobble it up. After 
this give them some 
baked Indian meal 
and flour bread 
mixed, chopped fine, 
and milk to drink. 
After the first week 
give them ground 
oats, cracked oats, 
cracked wheat and 
sifted cracked corn, 
boiled broken rice 
and white flour 
bread or graham 
bread. Milk, if you 
have it, if not, water, 
for the brooder 
chicks. Give them FIG - 103, bai1ke d Plymouth rock. 
meat scrap which contains ground bone, and also cut 
fresh bone. You can, perhaps, keep a small chick alive 
on cracked corn alone, the same as half the farmers do; 
but that is not what the man or woman wants who is 
raising chicks for profit, and who desires to get three- 
pound -per-pair chicks in ten, or at the farthest, twelve, 
weeks ; and to clo this you must work them for all they 
are worth. But do not feed on cracked corn alone. I 
assure you, they get tired of it, the same as we would 




2G4 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

upon a diet of bread alone. Let them have free access 
to coarse sand or any kind of grit. Don't leave any 
holes open at night in your houses for rats to crawl 
through. 

Mr. I. K. Felch, the well-known breeder, feeds his 
chicks by a fixed schedule. The first meal is boiled 
eggs chopped fine, shells and all, also corn cake and his 
excelsior meal crumbled into scalded milk. After the 
first 24 hours, the early morning feed is excelsior meal, 
bread and scalded milk. At 10 o'clock, a feed of very 
fine cracked corn ; at 2 o'clock, excelsior, bread and 
milk ; at 6 o'clock, canary seed, millet seed and the fine 
cracked corn. If the season be winter, meat and green 
food, steamed clover, fine grit, etc.,' are added. After 
the chicks are two weeks old, and until they are eight 
weeks of age, the bill of fare is as follows : 

Monday — Breakfast, excelsior meal, bread and milk ; 
ten o'clock meal, boiled meat, chopped fine, with steamed 
clover; two o'clock dinner, excelsior meal, bread and 
milk; supper, granulated corn, oats and barley. 

Tuesday — Breakfast, the broth in which meat was 
boiled, thickened while it was boiling (and when the 
meat was taken out) with excelsior meal ; ten o'clock, 
chopped mangel-wurzel beets, and after eating what they 
would, allow to finish filling their crops with granulated 
corn ; two o'clock dinner, the balance of the broth, 
mush, and a pan of sour milk, if to be had, to pick at 
till five or six o'clock; supper, all the granulated corn, 
oats and wheat they would eat should be given. 

Wednesday — Breakfast, fish chowder made palatable 
with salt and pepper, boiled potatoes, and thickened 
with corn meal and shorts ; ten o'clock, oats and wheat, 
and all the steamed clover or green chopped oats they 
would eat; dinner, cracked corn, and balance of chow- 
der if not wholly disposed of at the morning meal ; sup- 
per, cracked corn and barley. 



FEEDING EOR GROWTH. 



26; 



Thursday — Breakfast, chopped sheep's haslets, and 
warm mush of wheat, bran and corn meal ; ten o'clock, 
cracked corn and wheat ; dinner, all the steamed clover 
they would eat, and as dessert what excelsior meal cake 
they would dispose of; supper, cracked corn and oats. 
Give sour milk in a pan to go to at will. 

Friday — Breakfast, the meat sonp thickened with ex- 
celsior meal; ten o'clock, green oats, chopped onions 



# 




FIG. 104. WHITE WYANDOTTES. 

and light feed of granulated corn ; dinner, balance of 
the broth, mush and barley to finish up ; supper, cracked 
corn and wheat. 

Saturday — Breakfast, raw chopped meat and excelsior 
meal mush, scalded and fed warm; ten o'clock, chopped 
cabbage, lettuce and turnips, or mangel-wurzels, throw- 
ing them a little granulated corn; dinner, excelsior 
mush with barley ; supper, granulated corn and oats. 

Sunday — Breakfast, fish chowder, warm (made as 
above) ; ten o'clock, steamed rowen clover and barley ; 
dinner, excelsior meal cake and scalded milk ; supper, 
cracked corn and wheat, with sour milk ad libitum. 



266 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

For the benefit of those who wish to make it, Mr. I. K. 
Felch's rule is given for his excelsior meal bread. "Grind 
into a fine meal in the following proportions : Twenty 
pounds of corn, fifteen pounds oats, ten pounds barley, 
ten pounds wheat bran. We make the cakes by taking 
one quart of sour milk or buttermilk, adding a little 
salt and molasses, one quart of water, in which a large 
heaping teaspoonful of saleratus has been dissolved, then 
thicken all with the excelsior meal to a little thicker 
batter than your wife does for corn cakes. Bake in 
shallow pans till thoroughly cooked. We believe a well- 
appointed kitchen and brick oven pays, and in the bak- 
ing of this food enough for a week can be cooked at a 
time." Some growers obtain stale- bread very cheaply 
and use it in place of a cooked bread like the above. 

A correspondent furnishes this excellent bill of fare : 
First week — at 6 a. m., cracker mixture; 9 a. m., clab- 
bered milk; 12 m., cracker mixture; 3 p. m., chopped 
cabbage; 6 p. in., cooked oat meal. Second week — 6 
a. m., cracker mixture ; 9 a. m., clabbered milk ; 12 m., 
oat meal, dry; 3 p. m., chopped cabbage; 6 p. m., 
cracker mixture. Third week — 6 a. m., cracker mix- 
ture, omitting the egg ; 9 a. m., chopped cabbage; 12 
m., cracked wheat; 3 p. m., clabbered milk; 6 p. m., 
oat meal, cooked. Fourth week — 6 a. m., cracker mix- 
ture ; 9 a. m., clabbered milk and oat meal, dry ; 12 m., 
chopped cabbage and cracked wheat; 3 p. m., cracked 
corn; 6 p. m., cracker mixture. Skimmed milk is 
allowed freely, but no water. The cracker mixture con- 
sists of cracker dust soaked in milk and mixed with 
boiled yolk of eggs, fine ground bone and ground beef 
scraps ; the first week it should be nearly half egg. 

R. G. Buffinton writes : [ feed the young chickens 
the first three days on hard-boiled eggs, and then stale 
bread or broken crackers for a few days longer, or until 
they get smart enough to run out. I then give them 



FEEDING FOE GROWTH. 



!G7 



the same as I do the old fowls in the morning — corn 
meal, fine feed, boiled potatoes and beef scraps, always 
using a little of the egg food. After they are two weeks 
old, I keep cracked corn and wheat by them all the time. 

Pigs' liver is one of the best forms of animal food for 
chicks. It is extensively used by Plymouth county 
poulterers who hatch artificially. Codfish has killed 
chicks. 

The coops should be often moved to fresh locations, 
on dry, green grass plots if possible, and plenty of fresh 




FIG. 105. WHITE WONDERS. 

water given daily ; put old nails, or other iron, in the 
water, as iron is good for their health. When the chicks 
get strong they may be allowed to roam at will with the 
hen. If there is danger of hawks, a run or yard cov- 
ered with a wire screen may be necessary. It is also a 
good idea to make a box out of slats wide enough apart 
to admit chicks of various sizes, and yet exclude hens, 
and throw the feed for the chicks in this, so that they 
can eat without being robbed by the larger fowls. The 



2ti8 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

chicks of different ages should be kept at quite a dis- 
tance from each other for this reason, allowing only 
flocks of same age to feed together. When the chicks 
are six weeks old they may be removed to some other 
part of the farm, where they will have a fresh hunting- 
ground for insects, which will form an important part 
of their food. They should be placed in small, portable 
houses, eight feet long, four feet wide, three feet high 
in front and two feet high in rear, with tight floor and 
roof. The sides of this building should be boarded per- 
pendicularly, leaving one-inch space between each board 
to secure perfect ventilation without a draught. 

When the chickens are removed to these houses they 
should be placed at quite a distance from, and out of 
sight of, their former habitation ; if this is not done, 
they are liable to go back to their former coop. They 
should be moved at night, and shut in the house for a 
day or two, when they may be let out just at dusk, 
always feeding them near their new quarters. After a 
day or two they will be contented, and will always be 
found at night in their new home. If they are placed 
near some cornfield they will do no injury to the grow- 
ing crop, and it will serve as a shelter for them from 
the burning sun. As the season grows later and the 
hay crop is gathered, the colonies may be scattered all 
over the mowing fields to a great advantage to the next 
season's crop. The chickens will destroy all the insects, 
and the fertilizer that they will deposit will make the 
fields look green. 

FATTENING AND MARKETING. 

Old hens are unprofitable, and should be weeded out, 
and autumn is the time to do it if they were not sold in 
the spring or used for potpie during the summer. They 
will never be heavier and fatter than they are then, and 
the feed they will consume will be all loss. For fatten- 



FEEDING FOR GEOWTH. 269 

ing fowls, the following arrangement will be found ef- 
fective : A long, low box (a shoe box, laid upon its 
side, answers very well) is lathed up and down in the 
front, leaving an opening all along the front, a bar being 
fitted across the box, three inches above the bottom. 
This bottom opening is to clean out the box with a 
scraper, once every day ; after which dry earth is thrown 
in. This box will hold six fowls, and a feeding trough 
and a water can should be fitted in front. A number of 
boxes may be tiered one over the other, and when the 
fowls have fed, the front should be covered and dark- 
ened, by hanging bagging over it. This will keep the 
fowls quiet. Two weeks of this treatment will fatten 
them. The finest flesh is made by feeding cornmeal 
and boiled potatoes, mixed with skimmed milk, quite 
thick, and four feeds a day should be given. Fowls are 
best slaughtered and dressed as follows : A barrel is pro- 
vided, with a number of nails driven in around the open 
edge. A number of loops of twine, about six inches 
long, are also provided. The bird is fastened by noosing 
the loop around the legs, and is hung in the barrel, head 
downward. The head is then taken in the left hand, 
and a sharp pointed knife is pushed through the throat, 
close to the vertebra, and drawn forward so as to cut 
the throat clear through, by which sensation is at once 
arrested, and the fowl bleeds to death rapidly and pain- 
lessly. Being confined in the barrel, the splashing from 
the fluttering is avoided, and everything is done in a 
cleanly and easy manner. Dry picking is preferred by 
the marketmen, but the extra price will hardly pay for 
the trouble over the scalding of the fowls, and the easier 
picking in that way. To scald a fowl, take a pail three- 
quarters full of boiling water, and plunge the bird into 
it, drawing it up and down a few times. Keep the 
water up to 'the scalding heat by adding a quart of boil- 
ing water occasionally. 



270 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

Ducks are fed nearly the same as chickens, except 
that they need rather more animal food as they increase 
in size. They should be carefully guarded from rain 
for the first fortnight. They should also be yarded 
while young, for if allowed free range, they greedily 
devour all manner of insects, which they do not stop to 
kill, and too often pay the penalty with their lives. 
Boiled potatoes and vegetables should be fed freely, at 
least once a day, to young ducks, which should have 
four meals each day until five weeks old. Cracked corn 
and refuse wheat may be kept by them, but while fatten- 
ing they should have all the soft food they can eat at 
least three times a day. Ducks should be marketed at 
nine or ten weeks old, as soon after that the pin feathers 
begin to grow and they are off condition and soon be- 
come poor, while it is an immense job to pick them. If 
not marketed at the time above mentioned, they will 
not be in condition again till after they are four months 
old. Pekin ducks at nine weeks old, if well fed, will 
dress from eight to eleven pounds per pair. 

PACKING AND SHIPPING. 

In packing poultry, assort them carefully, putting the 
large ones, also the small ones and any old bulls or cocks, 
each by themselves, and mark the number in the pack- 
age. During Thanksgiving week, large fancy turkeys, 
weighing from twelve to fifteen pounds each, generally 
command the best prices of the year. The market is 
then usually filled with "fair to poor" stock, which 
goes at low figures ; bufc even ten-pound turkeys, fat and 
well dressed, bring good prices, unless, as is sometimes 
the case, warm, rainy weather demoralizes the market. 
Make your packages as uniform as possible. Nice boxes 
of regular dimensions are much better than irregular 
ones. We subjoin a cut giving best sizes used for tur- 
keys and chickens, and showing style of packing gener- 



FEEDING FOR GROWTH. 



271 



ally preferred. Western shippers who send large quan- 
tities had better adopt these packages and style of pack- 
ing, even if at considerable trouble and expense, as it 
will give them a decided advantage over other shippers 
who use old boxes of all sizes, ready to fall apart on 
arrival — because, when shipped as above suggested, it 
insures quick sales, prompt returns and highest market 
prices for quality of stock. 

During cold weather, poultry can be shipped any day 
in the week, either by express or freight. It should be 



Turkey 
Boxes 

14x22 
X26 




Chicken 
Boxes 
8x 16 
x22 



FIG. 106. TCKKEYS PACKED FOR MARKET. 

entirely cold, but not frozen, before being packed. Boxes 
are the best packages. Line them with paper and pack 
so closely that the contents cannot move, but never use 
straw, and never wrap dressed poultry in paper. On the 
cover, distinctly mark the kind and quality of contents 
—the gross weight and correct tare in plain figures, thus: 



20 No. 1 250 
Turks. 40 








Choice 125 
Chicks. 20 


210 

ADDRESS OF COMMISSION 
MERCHANT. 


105 

ADDRESS OF COMMISSION 
MERCHANT. 



Also the merchant's name and that of the shipper, unless 
he is known by the number of his stencil. Stencils are 



'Zl'2 PEOFJTS IS POULTKX. 

furnished free for this purpose, when desired. When 
the correct tare of a package is omitted, the entire con- 
tents have to be removed to ascertain the weight of the 
poultry, and if frozen, it is often impossible to do this 
without tearing the package to pieces, and if not frozen 
it causes much extra work and delay, which will some- 
times prevent the sale, especially if the customer is in a 
hurry, as is usually the case in the busy poultry season. 




CHAPTER XXV. 
FEEDING FOR EGGS/ 

Anybody can get eggs in spring and early summer, 
but there is little money in them at the prices which 
then prevail. The poultry keepers who make hens pay 
are those who know how to get eggs in autumn and 
winter. 

A right start is very important. Pullets, not old 
hens, must be kept for fall and winter laying, and pul- 
lets which are mature enough to begin laying before 
cold weather begins. To get such pullets, the chicks 
must be hatched in April, for the large and medium 
breeds. For the small breeds, like Leghorns, May 
hatching will answer. The pullets must be kept grow- 
ing right through the summer, for if they cannot be 
induced to lay by November, good-by to any great prof- 
its for the year. Cross breeds and grades will lay better 
than pure breeds, unless the pure breeds have been bred 
and selected more for eggs and vigor than for fancy 
points. 

Having secured the early pullets, and having placed 
them in warm, light, dry houses, they must be properly 
fed. 

HOW TO FEED. 

Feed in the morning a warm, cooked meal of various 
ground grains, including a good proportion of middlings, 
shorts or bran. Season it slightly with a very little salt. 
About twice a week mix in a liberal dose of meat scraps 
of some kind, and occasionally season it with cayenne 
pepper. Vary the proportions of the different feeds 
(273) 

18 



2T4 



PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 



daily. This will keep them in good appetite and make 
them anxious to see you as soon as 'tis time to leave 
their roost. Give them also, occasionally, in the cooked 
food, a quantity of bone meal or ground bone. 

For the other one or two meals a day — some feed only 
twice, others three times ; young stock that are confined 
should have a light feed at noon, the heavier feed being 




FIG. 107. BROWN LEGHORNS. 



given at night just before going to roost — give them 
whole grain, making the variety as great as possible, and 
vary their meals as much as possible. No two meals 
alike in a day is a first-rate plan. Only feed Indian 
corn, whole or ground, once or twice a week, unless to 
fattening fowls. It is a poor egg food, but will put on 
fat quicker than any other. 



FEEDING FOR EGGS. 275 

There should have been stored, in the fall, all the 
culls from the cabbage crop, for the use of the fowls. 
When no green stuff can be had from their runs, and 
when confined to the house, hang a head up in the open 
yard where it can just be reached by jumping a little, 
and see how eagerly they will go for it, and how much 
fun and enjoyment they will get from it. Good clover, 
rowen, and in fact almost any good, clean, sweet 
hay cut in short pieces, is good for them and will be 
thankfully received and appreciated and good interest 
paid on its cost. Vegetables, either cooked or raw, are 
much relished also, and serve in some measure to supply 
the place of a green diet. Onions chopped fine and 
mixed with their food are exceedingly wholesome, and, 
if not a cure, are certainly a preventive of disease. 
Growing chickens are even more anxious for green food 
than laying hens. But if the poulterer feeds too many 
onions the eggs will taste of them ; feed moderately, 
and if chopped up raw, nothing is better for laying fowls. 
Eaw apples or other cheap fruit, chopped up fine, is rel- 
ished in winter. Below is the ration of E. G. Bufrlnton, 
a well-known and extremely successful producer of eggs 
for market. He says : 

"Much depends upon the feed, especially for hens 
that are yarded all the time. It will not do to keep feed 
by them. If we did, they would be liable to get sick or 
get too fat. Then they would not lay any eggs, and 
instead of a profit there would be a loss. We cannot 
afford to keep hens around half of the time doing noth- 
ing. My morning feed consists of corn meal and fine 
feed in equal parts, ground beef scraps, and in the win- 
ter boiled potatoes. This is all mixed together with hot 
water, adding a little salt and egg food. This is fed as 
soon as the fowls can see to eat, except in the longest 
days in summer. This feed is put in troughs eight feet 
long, eight inches wide and three inches high. The 



276 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



ends are put in so the bottom of the trough will be three 
inches above the ground. This same trough is used for 
the dry grain on stormy days, and in all winter weather. 
At other times the grain is fed in the yards. For dry 
grain feed, I use equal parts of whole corn, oats and 
wheat. This grain is mixed together in a basket that 
holds three pecks, and I always use a two-quart flour 
scoop to deal out both wet and dry feed. This mixture 
is fed twice a day, in the morning after breakfast, and 
at night. I never feed in the middle of the day or dis- 
turb the hens in the least. I want them to spend all 
the time they want in laying eggs. I used to feed at 

noon, but found if 
all the hens were 
called off the nest to 
eat dinner the same 
number would not 
go back again that 
day." 

Four quarts of feed 
per day for twenty- 
six hens would be 
about right. If they 
were large Brahmas, 
they might require 
more ; if Leghorns, less. The proper way would be to 
give them what they will eat up readily. Wheat screen- 
ings contain a large quantity of foul seed ; some of them 
the hens will not eat, and of course they will take root 
and grow. We have known hens to die from eating the 
seed in screenings. The better way would be to feed 
good wheat. A good winter feed for laying hens is equal 
parts of corn meal and fine feed ; add to this one-twentieth 
as much ground beef scraps and some boiled potatoes, 
mix with hot water and feed every morning. Give whole 
corn, oats and wheat in equal parts at noon and night, 




FIG. 108. HAMBUKGS. 



FEEDING FOR EGGS. 277 

giving a very light feed at noon and all they will eat at 
night. 

MAKE THEM WORK. 

In no one point do so many fail as in that of giving 
the hens exercise. Unless they are kept scratching a 
great part of the time, they will not hiy as they should. 
Upon this point all are agreed. The usual plan is to 
keep the floor covered with leaves, straw, cornstalks or 
hay several inches deep, and to make the hens scratch it 
over by scattering grain, and by stirring up the litter 
with a fork. The more time spent making the hens 
scratch, the more eggs they will lay, other things being 
equal, and the less time they will have for mischief and 
learning bad habits. One man does in this way : "My 
new poultry house opens into the barnyard, where I 
unload the manure that is drawn from the city in the 
winter. Every morning I scatter four quarts of wheat on 
the manure heaps, and the fowls spend most of the time 
scratching for it. When not so occupied they are on 
the nests laying, or are clucking contentedly in the hen- 
house. Every evening before the fowls go to roost a 
feed of corn is given them. I get plenty of eggs and 
the fowls are contented and healthy." 

Whenever the ground is bare of snow, during the win- 
ter, give the birds a chance to run. After their first 
meal in the morning, give their feed on some grass plot, 
or where the dead leaves are accumulated, and make 
them scratch for it. They need just such exercise, and 
will be all the healthier and hardier for it. When snow 
covers the ground, keep them confined in the house and 
the open shed connected with it. Eating snow and drink- 
ing snow water will keep them poor, no matter how well 
you may feed them. Eeed the whole grain in the open 
shed, in which you can put leaves or cut hay or straw, 
so that they will have to scratch for the grain or go hun- 
gry, which latter they won't do. 



278 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

Another successful egg raiser says : " Into the pens 
(which are 11x12 feet) is put about four bushels of fine 
earth, and then dry forest leaves to the depth of one 
foot or more, over which scatter whole corn, at the after- 
noon feeding time, and I can assure you there will be no 
lack of exercise. During the winter I keep fifteen fowls 
in each pen of the aboye size, and occasionally add plas- 
ter and fresh leaves as they are reduced to powder, which 
serve to keep the fowls warm and dry. All droppings 
will be worked down through the leaves. I have never 
had a diseased fowl, feather-puller or egg-eater since I 
began using leaves in this way. Don't let any fear of 
filling your houses with woodmites deter you from using 
leaves, when kerosene oil and Dalmatian powder are 
both cheap and effective." 

HEALTHY FOWLS. 

Thorough ventilation, a comfortable house, plenty of 
exercise and varied food, are the safeguards against dis- 
ease. Colds must be looked for, and treated as soon as 
noticed. If this is clone promptly and thoroughly, there 
need be little fear of roup. A warm place for the ailing 
ones, soft feed, cooked, of wheat middlings and bran 
mixed, ground oats, with small allowances of Indian 
meal, in which a dose of prepared roup pills has been dis- 
solved, and made smart with cayenne pepper, is a goed 
treatment. If they have a cough with the cold, burn 
flowers of sulphur in their house after they have gone to 
roost, until they are affected by the gas so they sneeze 
well. This has a wonderfully good effect. Put a small 
bunch of shavings in an old tin pan, or on a shovel, 
with a handful of the sulphur, light the shavings, and 
let it burn ; shut the house up tight till they begin to 
sneeze, and then take it out. The quantity named is 
sufficient to i( sneeze" two or three houses of fifty fowls 
each. 



FEEDING FOE EGGS. 



279 



The dust bath should be provided at all seasons of the 
year. In winter a generous box of dry dust by a sunny 
window will be sufficient for forty or fifty hens if its 
supply of dust is renewed once or 
twice. Add half a pound each of 
lime and sulphur to each bushel of 
dust used ; these greatly assist in kill- 
ing lice. Fine sifted coal a'shes are 
excellent. If wood ashes are used, 
they should make up but one-fourth 
of the dust, as their potash is too 
strong when used alone. In summer, 
wallowing in the dry earth is best. 

SPRING AND SUMMER. 

At these seasons, hens should be 
fed twice a day. Give a warm mash 
in the morning, composed of all the 
odds and ends from the table, any- 
thing but bones, cut and jammed up 
and mixed with Indian meal and FI G-io9. severe case 

-, , r» r? i i i i tj> -t OF ROUP, SHOWING THE 

shorts or nne feed, about halt and W hitish discharge in 
half; then scald and give as warm as passages (see p. 318). 
they will eat it. About nine o'clock give them a pan of 
milk which has been soured and thickened, and a pail of 
apples partly decayed, which they will devour voraciously. 
About four or a little after give them a generous feed of 
Indian corn and wheat, half and half. Keep ground 
oyster shells by them, and mix scraps or meat cut up, 
or grease, with their breakfast, every two or three days. 
If the chicks are all right, the hens will lay all winter 
with this slight care. 

USEFUL HINTS. 

To use pans for feeding, take a common milk pan and 
two wires — one two feet long and the other one foot 
long. Bend the long one in the middle into a loop. 




280 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

Fasten the short one to it so as to make three ends 
about ten inches long. Fasten these at equal distances 
around the edge of the pan. Hang it by a string in the 
henhouse, so as to have the top edge six inches from the 
ground. The biddies can then reach and eat from it 
without being able to get into and soil the food. 

The old practice of feeding fowls on the ground should 
be abandoned. It was formerly supposed that the more 
sand, grit and dirt that was taken into the crop with 
the feed the better, but the ground plan conduces to 
disease, for there is a constant accumulation of filth, to 
say nothing of disease germs, on such places. Either 
feed on a long broad board or from a trough, for fowls 
prefer cleanliness to filth at all times. It is also waste- 
ful to throw food upon the ground, to be trampled into 

the mud on wet days, 
there to ferment and 
cause annoyance from 
time to time, to say 
nothing of the strug- 
fig. no. feed trough. gles aTld com bats that 

are more liable from the system. 

Economy in feeding is a very important chapter in 
the hen diary. When fowls are fed all they will eat, 
and food is left standing by them, it must be protected 
against waste. Arrange a box, opening at the top by a 
lid, and slats on two sides, running up and down. Put 
feed inside, so the fowls can get their heads in, but not 
their feet ; or make a box-shaped coop, with slats run- 
ning up and down, open at the bottom, tight at the top. 
Place this over the feed dish. 

A simple and efficient feeding trough may be made by 
tacking a piece of tin about three and one-half inches 
wide along the edge of a half-inch board, so that the tin 
projects about an inch and a half on either side of the 
board, bending the tin so as to form a shallow trough, 




FEEDING EOR EGGS. 



281 



and fastening the board to blocks which raise it from 
one to two inches from the floor (see Fig. 110). The 
trough may be from one to three feet long. It is within 
easy reach of the chickens, and so narrow that they can- 
not stand upon the edges. Food placed in such feeding- 
troughs can be kept clean until wholly consumed. 

Drinking vessels protect in the same way. We con- 
sider galvanized iron dishes the best. You can get 
them made, of any size or shape. They are not to be 
broken, will not rust, and can be cleansed w T ith hot 
water, and will last for years. They should be kept in 
a shady, dry place, 
rinsed out every 
day, and scalded out 
every week. A com- 
mon water pail can 
also be utilized. 

Saw ont two staves 
even with the top 
hoop on opposite 
sides of the pail, 
leaving a stave be- 



tween those cut out; 
cut a notch one 
inch deep and one or two inches wide on opposite staves. 
Make a cover and nail on a cleat long enough to project 
by at each end about one inch ; then fasten another cleat 
to the first, just long enough to fit into the top of the 
pail, and fasten a strap to the other side of the cover 
for a handle. When the cover is on and the cleats are 
in place, the hens cannot knock it off. 

The drinking dish should, in any case, be arranged to 
promote cleanliness. A good plan is to raise it and en- 
close it in a frame of laths. Take a long, narrow dish, 
something like a tin bread tray, on a low shelf a few 
inches from the floor, and hinge the cover to one side of 




FIG. 111. DllINKING FOUNTAIN. 



282 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

the poultry house, so that it can be tipped up in front 
for the removal of the dish or for filling it with water 
(see Fig. 111). Whatever device is used, it must be 
easily cleaned and of free access to the fowls at all times. 

Cleanliness in all pertaining to the food and feeding 
is essential. Punctuality in feeding is a matter the 
French esteem of great importance, and it is being more 
and more regarded in the same light in this country. 
Hens are early risers, also, and do not like standing 
around on one foot waiting for their breakfast. The 
morning meal, with them, is the most important one of 
the day. 

In feeding grain to laying fowls, if the flock is a large 
one, great care must be taken that the grain is scattered, 
so that the weaker fowls are not jostled aside by the 
stronger ones. Our rule, in feeding all stock, is to see 
that the weakest ones have abundant room. While we 
soon can detect the unthrift of large animals when thus 
crowded away from their just share, we cannot so easily 
individualize the egg record of each hen in a large flock, 
yet we must charge the minor members of the household, 
when entrusted with feeding, to see that the least ag- 
gressive hens have room enough to get their due share. 

COMMON MISTAKES. 

In looking over the average poultry house in winter, 
the most common defects are as follows : Bare, damp 
floor, upon which the fowls stand and mope, and some- 
times get rheumatism ; broken windows, letting cold air 
blow upon the roosts or upon the fowls in daytime. 
Both the above will check laying, and are common causes 
of roup. Damp droppings left for weeks to heap up 
under the roosts ; lack of a supply of water, obliging 
the hens to eat snow, thus stopping the eggs; lack of 
plenty of good, sharp grit, which alone is a sufficient 
cause of failure ; lack of fresh meat and cut bone fed 



FEEDING FOR EGGS. 



283 



twice a week ; overfeeding, overcrowding, and no 
inducement to scratch for a living. These are the 
most common and important mistakes, and those who 
wonder why their hens do not lay, will do well to go 
over the list. 

See that your house is tight, so that on cold windy 
nights the fowls will not suffer any more than can be 
helped. A good plan is to keep a barrel in the building, 
and the coldest nights put in the birds that are liable 
to have their combs freeze, and cover the barrel. Above 
all, do not crowd the fowls. During the long winter 
months, when they 
cannot exercise out of 
doors, they will need 
at least seven or eio-ht 
feet square per fowl. 
Scatter some hay 
around and throw the 
grain into it. This 
will make them exer- 
cise and will be what 
they need, and the 
eggs will hatch better 
in the spring. Avoid 
feeding stimulants to 
fowls you are going to breed from, and do not give them 
any more food than they will eat up clean. The rest 
is very apt to be left and become filthy. Another thing 
is, pure, fresh water ; do not fail in this. You may 
think snow will answer, but it is not good for poultry 
and will make them poor. Warm the water on cold 
days, and put a spoonful of red pepper in it. Fowls are 
always thirsty, and a great deal of roup is brought on by 
allowing them to drink impure water. Kindness is 
never thrown away in pon 1 try. Show us a person who 
studies their wants and loves to care for them, and we 
warrant he will be successful. 




FIG. 112. RHODE TSI.AXD REDS. 



284 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

Some growers keep, for laying, hens without a male. 
Under such conditions, the hens will lay an equal or 
greater number of eggs, and the eggs are claimed to 
keep better than those which have been fertilized. Ac- 
cording to experiments at the New York station, eggs 
were produced at about thirty per cent less cost where 
no cockerel w r as kept. The only objection to the plan is 
the annoyance occasioned by the uneasy and peculiar 
behavior of the hens. When eggs are wanted for hatch- 
ing, the cockerel may be added about four weeks before 
beginning to save the eggs. 

ABOUT CERTAIN FOODS. 

Old cheese can sometimes be had for a very low price, 
and such has been found to be a very good egg producer. 

Ground oyster shells, fine sea shells, refuse plaster 
from houses, a little slaked lime, etc., should be sup- 
plied to provide the lime necessary to form egg shells. 
Good, clean gravel, to aid the digestion, should be 
provided. 

Pork is not good to feed to poultry, and if used must 
first be thoroughly cooked. It is sometimes recom- 
mended in disease. 

Sunflower seed, especially the large Kussian variety, 
is fine for poultry. 

Clear rye bran will swell and cake in the crop, so 
don't feed it whole. Rye should not be fed too freely 
to fowls, as it is very loosening to the bowels; it is 
the least desirable of any of the various grains for the 
production of eggs, and if fed at all, it should be used 
sparingly. * 

Cabbage for poultry feed may be hung up in the poul- 
try house, head clown, and high enough from the floor 
so that the birds can pick at it and yet not soil it. 

Animals which die on the farm, if the disease is not 
infectious, may be fed to poultry. 



FEEDING FOR EGGS. 285 

Fish food is liable to cause bowel trouble, and should 
be fed only in small quantities. 

Bone meal is excellent for layers. One pound of bone 
meal per day is about right for fifty hens. 

Lawn clippings are good green food for poultry con- 
fined in summer, and good also as dry fodder in winter. 

Scraps of all kinds should be fed daily about the mid- 
dle of the day, when least liable to freeze. Bits of meat, 
soup bones, apple parings, cabbage leaves, celery tops 
and small onions, or almost any refuse from the cook, 
should be feci in a roomy box, where the fowls can kick 
it over with pleasure. Pulverized clam shells, raw or 
burned bones, with gravel, should always be accessible. 
The cracked bone can be purchased by the pound from 
many of the fertilizer companies, also the oyster shells, 
but nothing seems to suit the fastidious taste of some hens 
so well as the clam shells. A shallow box is a conven- 
ient receptacle for this food. The lights (lungs) of beet 
make excellent meat if boiled till very tender and chopped, 
moderately fine. They are too tough if fed raw, and 
would only be wasted ; they may be obtained from the 
butcher for very little cost, and will help much to fill 
the egg basket. Tallow scraps or lard scraps are good, 
and can sometimes be purchased from a distant market, 
but there is some danger that the tallow was allowed to 
become tainted before trying, in which case the scrap 
might induce disease. 

Dried blood is fed by some poultry men, but is men- 
tioned with hesitation, because cases have been known 
of disease apparently caused by the hens eating the 
blood, which may have come from diseased animals. 

AMOUNT NEEDED. 

Experiments at the New York station resulted in 
the following statement of the amount of food consumed 
per day in winter for each fowl : 



286 



PKOFITS IK POULTRY. 





Corn. 


Raw 
apples. 


Ground 
oats. 


Total 
grain. 


Total food 


Larger breeds. . . 
Smaller breeds.. 


OZ. 

3.06 
1.48 


oz. 
2.32 
1.57 


oz. 

1.27 

.47 


oz. 
4.33 
1.95 


oz. 
6.65 
3.52 



Those who wish to go below the surface, in the science 
of poultry feeding, should study the composition of 
foods. Following is the Lawes and Gilbert table, which 
shows the make-up of the common foods : 



There is in every 
100 lbs. of 



Beans and peas 

Oatmeal 

Middling thirds or fi 

shorts 

Oats 

Wheat 

Buckwheat, 

Barley 

Indian corn 

Hempseed 

Rice 

Potatoes 

Milk 



Ms" 

S 0) 



cv cd 

E* 3 



lbs. 

25 
18 



18 

15 

12 

12 

11 

11 

10 
7 

6£ 
4* 



MS 

5.5 



lbs. 

2 



Starch 



lbs. 

48 
63 

53 
47 

70 
58 
60 
65 
45 
80 
51 
5 



,_, 




(S g 








g a; 








M-~ 


n 


s s 6 


0) 
O 


i>'Z£i 






S <U S 


G0 


O +- 05 




« 


w 


lbs. 


lbs. 


2 


8 


2 


2 


5 


4 


2 


20 


2 


1 


n 


11 


2 


14 


1 


5 


2 


14 


2 




1 





15 
9 

14 

10 
12 
HI 
11 
10 
8 
13 
50* 
86| 



OTKEii poultry foods.— (Hatch Station.) 
[Lbs. in 100.] 



Ground clover 

Wheat bran 

Animal meal 

Cut bone 

New process linseed meal 

Buffalo gluten meal 

Chicago giuten meal 

Wheat middlings 

Whole wheat 

Whole oats 

Soja bean meal 





M.S 










S t» 


V 




S 




e 3 






SS 


03 




M 

w 




V s3 












£ 
£ 


32 
W s 


w 


c3 
ft 


<v bo 

ft .5 


9.53 


7.43 


27.80 


1.93 


13.65 


9.56 


5.27 


8.85 


5.37 


17.69 


5.08 


28.63 




16.18 


40.03 


29.67 


24.06 




26.13 


20.19 


9.35 


4.48 


6.58 


6.39 


38.06 


7.14 


.84 


7.07 


12.67 


23.31 


8.10 


.83 


3.34 


5.57 


36.51 


10.93 


4.03 


6.95 


5.30 


17.28 


10.60 


1.69 


2.17 


1.93 


13.19 


10.06 


2.77 


8.71 


4.87 


14.53 


9.24 


5.02 


3.87 


16.25 


34.75 J 



w 
39.66 
53.26 
10.08 

35.14 

48.97 
45.65 
55.51 
70.42 
59.06 
30.87 



FEEDING FOR EGGS. 



28? 



In general, whatever concentrated food is good for 
making milk will also produce eggs. The following 
analysis shows the general similarity of the analysis of 
milk and of eggs, casein being equivalent to albumen : 



Analysis of Milk. 


Analysis of Hens' Eggs. 




Cow's 
niilk. 


Skim 
milk. 
89.0 
4.3 
04 
5.5 
0.8 




White. 


Yolk. 


Mixed. 


Water 


86.3 
4.1 
3.7 
5.1 
0.8 


Water 


b-i.8 
12.0 
2.0 

1.2 


51.5 

15.0 

30.0 

2.1 

1.4 

100.0 


71.7 






14.0 


Milk fat 


Fat 


11 


Milk sugar. .. 
Ash 


Membranes, etc... 


2.0 

1.3 








Total 


100.0 


100.0 


Total 


100.0 


100.0 









Albumen and albuminoids are the actual flesh and egg-formers; 
starch and fat are heat-producers and force-givers; busk is chiefly 
waste matter; ash, or mineral matter, contains phosphate, etc., nec- 
essary for bone-making, feather-forming, etc.; in milk the albumen is 
usually known as casein, this casein being the chief ingredient in 
milk for cheese-forming. 

THREE MONTHS' RECORD OF EGGS LAID BY DIFFERENT BREEDS. 



Remarks. 
European origin. 

If (< 

Asiatic origin. 
American origin. 



Brown Leghorn 

Minorca 

Houdan , 

Silver Spangled Hamburg 

Langshan 

Light Brahma , 

Partridge Cochin , 

Buff Cochin 

Barred Plymouth Rock — 

*Houdan -Minorca 

Bronze Turkey , 



v. ,_; 








. tS 


n 


o - 


c- 1 


> Q) 


£3 


fc 


72 


l 


72 


3 


127 


43 


1 


24 


24 


1 


37 


37 


3 


147 


49 


2 


116 


58 


1 


27 


27 


2 


92 


46 


1 


46 


46 


1 


45 


45 


1 


27 


27 



*A cross of Houdan and Minorca, by the station. 

The trial was made at Louisiana station, and the ex- 
perimenter's comment is as follows: The Brown Leg- 
horns gave the best record for three successive trials. 
They are followed by Light Brahma and Langshan and 
Plymouth Rock, BnfT Cochin and Minorca. The Euro- 
peans are the best spring and summer layers, but non- 
sitters. The Asiatics are winter and early spring layers, 
good mothers and brooders, and excellent for table pur- 
poses. Indeed, the Langshan is one of the best all- 
round fowls known, and close to them are the Plymouth 
Rocks, Wyandottes and Light Brahmas. However, it is 
hard to decide the merits of a fowl confined to close 
pens, and fed only vegetable foods raised upon the farm. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
TURKEYS ON THE FARM. 

Not every one can engage in the turkey business as an 
occupation or means of livelihood, because so much is 
dependent upon surroundings. All farmers are not so 
situated that they can raise turkeys without incommod- 
ing their neighbors. The laws of trespass are rigid in 
most States, and any neighbor who objects to your birds 
roaming over his fields can make you trouble, if he be so 
disposed. Turkeys must have range, and if your own 
fields are not wide enough to allow them that necessary 
element of success, either be sure of your neighbors' 
good nature, or do not embark in the business at all. 
Many turkey-growers believe that turkeys have a perver- 
sity of disposition, which imj:>els them to leave their own 
premises, where there is plenty of room, grain and grass- 
hoppers, and trespass on some neighbor's land, to get 
less food. 

A few turkeys can be grown on a small farm ; but 
there are plenty of abandoned farms in New England^ 
which can be bought for the price of the buildings alone, 
large enough to grow large flocks. The convenience to 
large markets enhances the profits. In the Western and 
Southern States still greater numbers may be kept, owing 
to wider ranges and cheapness of grain. Common fowls, 
with proper care, can be kept with profit in any city or 
village lot, but centuries of domestication have not 
changed the turkeys' natural love for a necessity of free 
range. They can be made tame by gentleness ; they 
learn to be familiar with those who care for them, and 
can be taught to come home every night ; but, as soon 
(288) 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 



289 




19 



3^^% ) j 



200 PKOPITS IN" POULTKtf . 

as they have left the stage of "infancy," as shown by 
"shooting the red/' their propensity to wander in search 
of their food asserts itself, and they must have that priv- 
ilege or they will sicken and die. This is a fortunate 
trait, for two reasons. First, it makes the birds' flesh 
better food for man ; second, it limits the business to 
fewer persons, who get paying prices for their labor. If 
turkeys could be raised at a profit in confinement, their 
flesh would not be so wholesome, and so many people 
would go into the business that the price would come 
down to a non-paying point. Turkey nature itself ef- 
fectually prevents all danger of overdoing the business. 

Turkeys are not hard to raise after you know how. 
For the first few weeks of their lives they require more 
care than any other domesticated bird, but after they 
are fully feathered and have "thrown the red," they 
require less care than any other fowl. It requires but 
little capital. Houses, except in the extreme North, 
and turkey sheds in other sections, are not needed. 
Turkeys must be raised on farms, and farmers raise 
much of the grain they need. One torn and three to 
five hen turkeys are enough to begin with. When you 
can raise all, or nearly all, of their progeny, then it will 
be time to think of enlarging your business. From a 
flock of ,six you ought to raise seventy-five to one hun- 
dred turkeys. 

Turkey raising is an excellent business for women. 
Many a farmer's wife, whose husband does not care to 
"bother with poultry," can earn from fifty to three hun- 
dred dollars a year, according to the size of the flock, 
the range and the market, without seriously impeding 
the other necessary work which falls to the lot of farm- 
ers' wives. 

Ehode Island Experiment Station: "To the fore- 
going it should be said, that we have found the largest 
and most thrifty looking turkeys on rather light land, 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 291 

and where new blood is frequently introduced. If a 
flock becomes diseased, the land which they wander over 
may become contaminated, and affect other flocks which 
occupy the same ground, hence it is sometimes necessary 
to change the land on which they run, from one year to 
another. If turkeys are kept w r here they may drink 
from stagnant pools in barnyards, pigpens or privy 
vaults, sudden and fatal attacks of bowel trouble must 
be expected. A running stream is of great value on a 
turkey farm." 

BREED AND CARE. 

In reserving or selecting parent stock from which to 
raise turkeys for the market, do not overlook a most 
important matter, the age of the parents. Ten- or 
twelve-month s-old turkeys are not sufficiently mature 
to produce the strongest progeny. Old turkeys lay 
larger eggs, and the young are larger and stronger when 
hatched. If necessity forces you to breed from stock of 
your own raising, keep the hens three, four, five or six 
years, if necessary. No judicious farmer will kill off his 
good heifers after they have dropped their first calves. 
He knows the progeny will become better and better, 
until age enfeebles the parent. So with turkeys. The 
same breeding stock may be kept, after they have proved 
their value, for some time. When you wish to rej:>lenish 
or renew the parent stock, select the best of your young- 
hens and get a first-class torn not related to them ; then 
you have your new stock to take the place of the others, 
whenever it may be deemed proper to dispose of the 
old ones. 

The Bronze turkeys are at present the favorites with 
the majority of those who grow turkeys for the market. 
Size and hardiness are the important factors which cause 
this favoritism. Sometimes private customers prefer 
white- or yellow-skinned ones, just as they prefer yellow- 



W& PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

legged chickens. Boston has made the present taste in 
New England, which decidedly prefers yellow-legged 
chickens, and though the preference is not emphatic for 
the skin of White Hollands, yet, doubtless, it is because 
it is difficult to obtain them. The compiler of this book 
has sold yellow-legged and yellow-skinned poultry at 
fifty per cent advance on the price of dark-legged chick- 
ens, It may be a fancy, but if you get your money, 
what matters it ? By persisting in raising white turkeys 
for the New England market for a series of years, a de- 
mand may be made for them. Outside of New England, 
unless we may except the Philadelphia market, the color 
of the skin and legs of a fowl or turkey receives but 
little consideration. 

By "common" turkeys is meant mongrels, — all sorts 
of breeds mixed. Too many farmers have such flocks. 
Get a first-rate male of the variety you want and mate 
him with your hens. From their progeny select the 
best females, and mate them with a fine male of the same 
breed, but not related to their sire. Pursue this course, 
"grading up," for two or three years, and you will have 
as good a flock as you need for market purposes. 

GETTING READY. 

Much depends upon the care of breeding stock, tur- 
keys being quite liable to disease when kept in confine- 
ment. The floor should be covered with litter, which 
should be renewed when badly soiled. Make them 
scratch for their grain in the litter. Dryness, cleanli- 
ness and a variety of food are important. Feed some 
meat. Furnish plenty of grit. Overfed turkeys will 
get too fat. Feed the old turkey hens clover and less 
starchy food in the latter part of winter, and they will 
give better satisfaction. Throw them some grain at 
noon. Then just before sundown, give them all the hot 
whole grain they can eat. Let them out as early as pos- 
sible in the spring. 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 293 

When the laying* season approaches, the turkeys must be 
watched. One man, who has great success with turkeys, 
encloses a large space by a high fence of wire netting, to 
prevent the turkeys laying and sitting in the woods and 
fields. Nests are provided within the enclosure. Dur- 
ing the laying season, the hen turkeys are driven within 
the enclosure to roost, and confined during the forenoon 
each day, until all have selected nests. When hatching, 
they and their young are more readily cared for and 
controlled. Humor the turkey's love for secrecy, if you 
prefer to have her lay out of doors, by setting laying 
coops for her in secluded places not far from your house 
and barn. Barrels, or "A" coops, with dried leaves or 
litter in them, will do. If she steals her nest in some 
bushes not far from the house, leave her alone, but 
remove the eggs daily, leaving a nest egg in the nest. 
When she has layed her litter she will rest awhile, and 
then lay another litter, when she should be allowed to 
sit. The eggs should be taken into the house and kept 
in a cool (not cold) place, packed in wheat bran, small 
end downward. 

Turkey eggs require twenty-eight days for incubation. 
Coincide with the hen turkey's desire for secrecy, and 
let her sit in places hidden from the sight of men and 
dogs. Bottomless boxes that will shed rain, old barrels 
with two or three staves knocked out, "A" coops, meas- 
uring not less than three feet square at the base, placed 
in retired situations not far from the house, are all that 
are necessary for hatching purposes. If the turkeys 
were taught to lay in them, all the better. The nest 
should be upon the ground, and made of forest leaves or 
chopped hay. The turkey's first litter may be taken 
away and set under common hens, 

Mr. Samuel Cushman says, from his own experience, 
that turkeys can be made to sit whenever required. A 
young turkey hen that never laid an egg was shut on a 



294 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

nest of china eggs, and there was no trouble in getting 
her to settle down. The first two times she was put off 
to feed, she was caught and placed on the nest and shut 
in, but after that the nest was left uncovered and she 
came off whenever she chose. We never found her off 




FIG. 114. BUFF TURKEY OOCK. 

the nest. The shed in which she was set had a slafe 
front, so she was confined and could not go out of sight 
of the nest or get away. This turkey was not a tame 
one, by any means. We can control our turkeys better 
if set within a large building or enclosure. Turkeys can 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 205 

be used to hatch the eggs of hens, ducks and geese, and 
the raiser who does not have an artificial hatcher will 
not have to delay operations until hens get ready to sit, 
or until he can secure the desired number. 

REARING THE TURKEY CHICKS. 

The turkey chicks having been hatched, they will 
require the breeder's utmost and constant attention for 
the first eight or ten weeks, for on the management of 
the chicks depends the success or failure of turkey rear- 
ing. Turkeys, when chicks, being exceeding delicate 
(the most delicate of any domesticated poultry), and 
liable to be not only decimated, but entire broods exter- 
minated by a sudden cold wind or a slight shower, and 
requiring, as they do, feeding every two hours, or six 
times a day, it is advisable for those who are unable to 
spare the time to give the necessary attention, not to 
attempt breeding turkeys, for they will only meet with 
severe losses and disappointment. 

The chicks, having broken the shells by themselves, 
without any fussy interference by the owner, may be left 
to themselves for twenty-four hours, though the shells 
may be removed and something placed in front of the 
nest, if it be made in a box, to prevent any of the chicks 
falling out and getting cold. The chicks having, just 
previously to emerging from the shell, drawn into their 
body the yolk, they are sufficiently sustained for twenty 
or twenty-four hours or so, and require no feeding until 
the following day. If the day be warm and fine, they 
may be placed outdoors, in a dry situation ; if cold and 
damp, or windy, they are better kept under cover, 
though not in a close atmosphere, but where there is 
plenty of ventilation, a large open shed protected from 
the wind being the best. A warm bed having been pro- 
vided, made of chaff, dry sawdust or dry horse drop- 
pings, all over a bed of dry sand and coal ashes, to pre- 



296 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

rent damp arising, place the coop, which should he pre- 
viously lime-washed, over it, facing- south, and the 
mother and chicks inside. The poults hatched under 
common hens should be given the mother turkey in the 
night. Some breeders prefer bottoms to the coops, but 
unless the ground be very damp, that is not necessary. 
If you dusted the mother with insect powder two days 
before hatching, there will be no lice to annoy them. 

On the second day the chicks may receive their first 
meal. On one point all turkey growers agree; no 
" sloppy" food must be given the young birds. In a 
natural state, turkey chicks feed largely upon flies, spi- 
ders, grasshoppers, grubs, snails, slugs, worms, ant eggs, 
etc., and if watched on a bright day will be seen to be 
constantly chasing flies, etc., about the meadows and 
woods. Berries, seeds, etc., make the variation. The 
first meal should be hard-boiled eggs (boiled twenty 
minutes), and stale wheat bread dipped in hot milk, the 
milk squeezed out, and both crumbled fine and seasoned 
with black pepper. This feed may be continued for two 
or three weeks, with now and then a variation to thick 
clabbered milk, or Dutch cheese in place of the egg. 
Let it be known that the egg is a substitute for insects, 
which the young turkey has in its wild state; so, as 
opportunities open for the chicks to get insects, the egg 
should be omitted. Dry meal must not be given them, 
nor wet meal insufficiently swelled. If the meal swells 
in their crops, death is almost certain. The best way to 
feed Indian meal is in the form of corn bread or ''Johnny- 
cake.*' After the young birds are three weeks old, omit 
the eggs and give meat scraps and ground bone. Clean 
water or milk must be before them all the time. For 
runs, the best are three fourteen-inch boards set on edge 
so as to form a triangle, with the coop in one corner, or 
shorter boards over one corner, for shelter from the sun 
by day and dews by night. Every day or two, move 



TURKEYS ON THE FARM". 



29' 



two of these boards so as to form another triangle, Fig. 
115, adjacent to the site of the old one. By the time 
the chicks are old enough to jump over the boards, they 
may be allowed to wander about with their mother, after 
the morning dew is off. After that time, three feedings 
a day -are* sufficient, and when they are weaned, feeding 
at morning and night only is enough. With a good 
range over wheat stubble, which they can have in the 
Western States and territories, and plenty of grasshop- 
pers, no other - 
feeding is neces- 
sary after they ar 
educated to come 
home to roost. 

Mr. Barber 
writes: "Our 
turkeys lay and 
si tin large, roomy 
coops, two and 
one-half feet long 
by two feet wide, 
two feet high in 
front, with a slope 
of six inches to the rear; we keep the turkey hens, with 
their broods, in a lot, on short grass." 

Instead of cooping brooding turkeys to prevent them 
from roaming too much, W. P. Lewis, who raises 90 per 
cent of his hatch, fastens the hen with a cord to a peg 
in the ground, after the manner cows are tied out to 
pasture. After being pegged down for a few days, the 
hens are "shingled," so they cannot fly over walls and 
fences, and are then allowed free range. In "shin- 
gling," or "boarding," turkeys, a thin board or shingle, 
in which holes are bored, is fastened across the shoulders 
of the bird, by soft cords, tape or strips of cloth. When 
of the proper shape and the boards are in the right 




FIG. 113. PES' TO CONFINE LITTLE TURKEYS 

UNTIL OLD ENOUGH TO JUMP OVER; 

MOTHER AT LIBERTY. 



298 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 




TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 



209 



place, and the cords are not tied too tightly, they may 
be worn twelve months without injury to the turkey. 
By this method the birds may be confined to one field as 
easily as sheep. This is better and surer than clipping- 
one wing. The only objection to it is that turkeys thus 
hampered are almost at the mercy of dogs. When the 
board is first adjusted, the turkeys try to free themselves, 
but they usually accept the situation in less than an hour, 
and do not seem to mind them afterward. The strings 
are usually tied on the top of the board. In fastening 




FIG. 117. COOP FOR BROODING TURKEY, WHILE THE CHICKS ARE AT 
LIBERTY. 

the common style of board, the string is passed down 
from one hole in front of the wing, close to the body, 
and around und^r the wing and up through the other 
hole, and is tied on top of the board. An ordinary 
shingle is strong enough for most hens, but large gob- 
blers require something stronger, and light barrel staves 
are often used ; a three-eighths-iuch auger hole is then 
necessary, but usually a gimlet is sufficient. 

The young chicks must have green food. If they 
cannot obtain plenty of grass, give chopped lettuce, dan- 



300 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



delions, onion tops (these last sparingly), turnip tops, 
etc. Buckwheat, cracked corn and wheat may be given 
at night, after they get large enough. Do not leave 
food around. Feed each, time only so much as will be 
eaten up clean. After the first two weeks give sour 
milk freely. After they can get insects, no other meat 
than the milk will be necessary. The particular enemies 
of the young turkeys are lice and diarrhoea, but both 
may be conquered. 

During the feathering period, the chicks must have 
plenty of bone- and feather-forming material. This is 
supplied best in the form of finely chopped meat and 
green bones. A good bone mill or cutter is indispensable 

when much poultry 
is kept. See that 
they have grit, in 
the form of pound- 
ed crockery, oyster 
shells and clean 
gravel. The best 
thing I ever used 
was small sea shells 
They cost about a 




FIG. 118. SHED FOR SHELTERING LITTLE 
TURKEYS AT NIGHT. 



from the sea coast of Connecticut, 
dollar per barrel. 

In addition to the foregoing, the following hints 
brought out by the most careful inquiry by the Rhode 
Island Experiment Station, of the methods pursued by 
the best turkey specialists in that State, are of interest : 
Little turkeys do best if kept and fed separate from 
fowls and chickens. They are weak and tender crea- 
tures, and as they grow very fast, require an abundance 
of nutritive and easily digested food, but it must not be 
too concentrated. Too rich food, too much food that is 
hard to digest, or a lack of green food, will cause bowel 
trouble. Little turkeys require food oftener than little 
chickens. Teed little and often. Give cooked food 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 



301 



until they grow enough to develop the red about the 
head, or green food, like chopped onions and lettuce, if 
they are confined to a pen. Remember that little chick- 
ens thrive under confinement that would cause disease 
and death among little turkeys. If the little turkeys 
are cooped, remove them to fresh, dry ground frequently. 
Dampness, lice and filth make short work of them. 
Give them their food on clean surfaces. 

Young turkeys should not be out in heavy showers 
until their backs are well covered with feathers. If they 
get wet, they may die from chill, unless put in a warm 
room to dry. Black and red pepper and ginger in the 
food or drinking water aid them to overcome a chill, 
and are of great value 
on cold or damp days, 
and are a preventive 
of bowel trouble in 
both old and young 
turkeys. Some find 
that young turkeys 
do best when neither 




FIG. 119. SHED FOR SHELTERING LITTLE 
TURKEYS AT NIGHT. 

they nor the hen is confined, providing they are put in a 
pasture lot, high and dry, where the grass is short and 
there are no trees. No more than three litters are 
cooped in a five-acre lot. 

At the Rhode Island Station it was found that confin- 
ing the little turkeys at night prevents their being en- 
tangled and lost in the long, wet grass, but it is detri- 
mental to their welfare and should not be continued too 
long. If possible, they should have full liberty where 
the grass is short. Their nature is such that they need 
cold air and a great deal of exercise. Restriction of lib- 
erty, with light feeding, soon puts them out of condi- 
tion ; while full feeding, even with liberty, prevents 
their taking full exercise, and causes disease of the di- 
gestive organs, and they are lost or do not thrive. 



302 



PROFITS m rOULTltY. 




TURKEYS ON THE FARM. 303 

If the young birds have done well at six or eight 
weeks, they begin to " throw the red/' as it is termed, 
viz. : To develop the red carunculous formation about 
the head and neck, so characteristic of the turkey. If 
the turkey chicks be late hatched or weakly, it is re- 
tarded sometimes another month. Should the growth, 
from whatever cause, be checked when young, they will 
never make large and vigorous birds. After they have 
"thrown the red," the sexes can be distinguished, and 
they are then termed poults. They should not be al- 
lowed to perch too early, but bedded down upon chaff, 
leaves, etc., or they will have crooked breasts. Later 
on, the fleshy appendage over the beak, and the billy or 
horsehair-like tuft on the breast, make their appearance 
in the male birds, which, with tail erected and outspread, 
and with the whole body inflated with pomp, can be easily 
distinguished from their more somber sisters. At the 
time of "throwing the red," the young turkeys pass 
through their chicken molt, another critical period in 
their life. The birds lose their appetite and languish 
several days. They require now more stimulating food 
and a larger meat diet. Being insectivorous, the best 
range young turkeys can have is among shrubbery, 
bushes and such like. If the weather be open and fine, 
and the birds have a little extra care for a short time, 
they become as hardy, as adults, as they were delicate 
when young. 

MARKING TURKEYS FOR IDENTIFICATION". 

SAMUEL CUSHMAN. 

As previously stated, turkeys do not thrive unless 
allowed free range. If enclosed in a large park by woven 
wire fence, or kept on an island, they can be controlled, 
but when given full liberty they roam over adjoining 
farms. In a neighborhood where man)^ keep them, the 
different flocks are liable to meet, run together and get 



304 



PROFITS IJST POULTRY. 
Fro n f Toe M Arks 




















Rear Toe Marks 




FIG. 121. SUGGESTIONS FOR MARKING TURKEYS BY THEIR FEET. 



TURKEYS OX THE FARM. 305 

•pretty well mixed. If not separated immediately, they 
may roost together, and roam as one flock the rest of the 
season. The first night a flock fails to return to its 
home roost, it should be looked up, separated from the 
other flocks and driven home. To do this is compara- 
tively easy if immediately attended to, but each day they 
run together makes their separation more difficult. 

To readily distinguish their own birds, many raisers 
try to have turkeys of a different color from any of those 
of their neighbors. By breeding for several seasons 
from a gobbler of a breed different from those kept near 
by, the flock takes on characteristics of its own, and 
e;ich individual is readily distinguished. The White, 
Buff, Slate and Ked or Golden varieties are valued prin- 
cipally for such use by growers. An additional advan- 
tage is gained, because first crosses between pure breeds 
are much more hardy, and some combinations are much 
larger. The grading up of common stock by the re- 
peated use of males of a pure breed also improves its 
profitable qualities. 

This means of identifying a flock is an excellent one, 
but is not sufficient for all purposes, for it is often de- 
sirable to distinguish the birds of a flock from each 
other, the stock raised one year from that of another, or 
that of a favorite lien or gobbler. Your turkeys may be 
lost among similar colored birds, or they may be cap- 
tured by thieves, and dressed before you get a clue to 
them. If you have a private mark you can tell them, 
dead or alive. A private brand is desirable, for many 
reasons. 

In turkey-raising sections, where there is a flock on 
nearly every farm, a system of marking their feet is fol- 
lowed. This is done by clipping off one or more of 
their nails, or tips of their toes, as soon as the little tur- 
keys are hatched. At this age they take very little no- 
tice of the operation, and there is little or no bleeding. 
20 



306 PROFITS Itf POULTRY. 

Each raiser has a different mark, and in some towns 
these are registered at the town clerk's office, the same 
as the brands of sheep or cattle. As a turkey has three 
front and one back toes on each foot, or eight toes alto- 
gether, many different brands may be made by clipping 
the different toes. Fig. 121 shows some of them. 

Six different marks may be made by clipping only one 
front toe. Nine more by clipping but two front toes. 
By clipping either the right or left back toe, the number 
may be doubled or trebled. By clipping more toes, 
combinations almost without number may be made, but 
it will be rarely necessary to remove more than one to 
two nails, even in a turkey-growing section. 

Should mature turkeys thus marked be stolen and 
dressed, they may be identified, as the marks cannot be 
changed without showing the fresh mutilation. The 
marks of little turkeys may be changed without detec- 
tion, provided sufficient time passes to allow them to 
heal before they are examined. The more toes you clip, 
the more difficult it is to change your marks. 

Other marks, in addition to the foot marks, are some- 
times necessary. The beak may be filed, holes punched 
in the skin or web of the wing, or a loop of colored silk 
fastened in the flesh where it cannot be seen. Although 
you may feel that such a precaution is not necessary in 
your case, probably if you follow this practice, you will 
at some time be very glad that you have done so. 

PRIZE ESSAY OKT TURKEY CULTURE. 

MRS. A. J. SEXSON, FURNAS COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 

The first requisite to successful turkey growing is care- 
fully selected stock for parent birds. Selections of the 
best, for years, have produced the most improved and 
profitable breeds of stock. The future stock depends 
very much upon the parent birds, or their ancestry. 
Bepeated breeding from inferior birds makes inferiority 



TURKEYS 0^ THE FARM. 307 

hereditary. After having faithfully tried the White, 
the Wild Black and the Mammoth Bronze turkeys, I 
prefer the latter for several reasons. They have proven 
hardier than the White, are equally strong, more gentle 
and more easily handled than the Black, less apt to roam 
far away and with proper care are ready for market at 
an earlier age than either of the other varieties, and I 
believe are less liable to disease. After complying with 
the first condition and having secured large, strong, 
parent turkeys, at least one year old, see that they are 
in the right condition for breeding. 

Breeding fowls should not be overfat, as the offspring 
of such fowls are less vigorous. If the hens are young 
(late hatched) they require more food at breeding time, 
as they are still growing and immature. If hens are old 
they should have millet and clover, where it can be 
grown, and less carbonaceous food in the latter part of 
the season. Too much corn will produce overfat tur- 
keys, unless they have abundant exercise in insect hunt- 
ing and plenty of green food. When the laying season 
begins, usually in March, a watchful lookout for the 
eggs must be kept. It is natural for all turkeys to hide 
the nest, but petting will do much toward keeping them 
near the house. Each egg should be gathered as soon 
as laid and placed, small end down, on cotton or some 
soft material and kept in a dry, cool, dark place. If 
not used at once, they should be turned occasionally, to 
prevent settling or adhering to the shell. As the eggs 
are removed daily from the nest, it is better to return a 
hen's egg, until there are five or six in the nest, as a tur- 
key is suspicious and easily discomfited. My turkeys 
lay entirely in the grove near the house and arrange 
their nests with skill themselves, my only task being to 
protect them from natural wild enemies. The nest 
should always be dry and large, and on the ground if 
possible. Fifteen eggs are sufficient for a large hen, 



308 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

and if small, thirteen will give better results. Four 
weeks, and often thirty days, are required to hatch the 
eggs. This makes a long period of rest for active Mrs. 
Turkey, yet she must be compelled to do her work faith- 
fully, consequently should have easy access to an abun- 
dance of food and pure water, that she may not be forced 
to remain too long a time off the nest to procure food, 
thus allowing the eggs to chill. 

Care of the Young. — About the twenty-seventh 
clay I throw a hard-boiled egg, mashed very fine, close 
to the nest, not into, lest it adhere to an egg, rendering 
the egg air-tight exactly over the beak of the young tur- 
key, which would prevent his escape from the shell. 
The mother turkey may eat this egg and the one given 
the following day or two, if it is not needed for her 
young, but in case she is hatching, she will use it for 
the little ones, and this food will often save the first- 
hatched birds. I have had the mother turkey refuse to 
leave the nest for three days after the first eggs hatched. 
If she leaves too soon, the remaining eggs may be placed 
under hens, or hatched by wrapping in wool and keep- 
ing warm near the fire. Should an egg become broken 
in the nest, the soiled eggs should be carefully washed 
immediately in warm, but not hot, water, and dried and 
returned at once to the nest. The trying time in the 
life of turkeys is the first week, when they require con- 
stant watching, then great care until they are eight 
weeks old, or until the quill feathers are well started. 
The producing of these feathers seems to weaken the 
fowl, and exhausts the system, and therefore they need 
especial treatment to counteract this difficulty. 

For the first week, the mother and young must have 
a warm place, free from draughts of air, free from 
dampness, and where they will be undisturbed by other 
fowls. 

The first three weeks the food should consist of sweet 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 309 

milk (fresh from the cow is best), very hard-boiled eggs 
and fine wheat-bread crumbs for the little ones, wheat, 
corn and fresh water for the mother. Feed the mother 
first and she will not take much of the egg and bread, 
which is more expensive. During this time, if the 
weather be warm and sunshiny, let the mother out dur- 
ing the middle of the day, keeping her near the coop, } 
taking care to shut her in before sunset, as the dew is 
harmful to the young turks. During the first week the 
little ones are apt to get onto their backs, from which 
position they cannot rise, and will die if allowed to thus 
lie for any length of time. Care must be taken not to 
place the pens near the hills of the small red or black 
ants, as these are enemies to young turkeys. They not 
only attack the head and kill the turkey, but if eaten, 
wilt almost instantly choke them to death. 

The fourth week the food may consist of oatmeal, 
sour milk curd in small quantities, cracked wheat and 
scraps from the table, taking care that the scraps con- 
tain nothing salt. Salt, salt meat, brine or salt fish will 
kill them. After the eighth week, give mother and 
brood their freedom. Feed only in the morning, and 
this is not needful if they have access to grain fields. 

If a turkey becomes sick, it should be isolated at once 
from the others, to prevent spread of the disease. Land 
over which diseased fowls wander will be contaminated 
and infect other flocks. Turkeys require plenty of pure 
water and must not be allowed to drink from stagnant 
pools, as this may produce bowel troubles. It is useless 
to doctor a very sick turkey — better to kill and bury 
deep at once. Prevention is better than cure, and if the 
following dose is given fortnightly, or even monthly, 
throughout the year, to either turkeys or chickens, there 
will be little necessity for cholera cure : Two ounces 
cayenne pepper, two ounces sulphur, two ounces alum 
and two ounces copperas. Mix all together and add 



310 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

two tablespoonfuls to eight quarts of corn meal, and wet 
the mixture with sweet milk or warm water. This will 
feed forty fowls. 

One may profitably practice giving two broods of 
young turkeys to one mother when hatched at the same 
time, as one turkey can hover from twenty-five to thirty 
little ones during the critical period in their lives, after 
which they do not need much hovering. The other 
mother, after being closely confined out of sight and 
hearing of the little ones for one week, will quickly 
mate and lay again. This is very practicable and desir- 
able when the first broods are hatched in May, or earlier, 
as the second hatchings are often the best, only a little 
later ready for market. 

THE RHODE ISLAND SYSTEM. 

Of late years Prudence Island has been one of the 
leading turkey-producing sections. Over 800 turkeys 
were raised there in 1892. George Tucker raises the 
largest number, and probably produces more turkeys 
than anyone in Ehode Island. In 1888 he raised 225 
turkeys from 22 hens ; in 1889, 306 from 28 hens; in 
1890, 340 from 30 hens; in 1891, 322 from 36 hens, and 
in 1892, 425 from 35 hens. Previous to 1888 he had only 
average success, but since that time, owing to an im- 
provement in his management, he has had but very little 
loss. He credits his present success to having gained a 
clearer understanding of the requirements of turkeys, as 
well as to having procured from Connecticut a very fine 
gobbler, by means of which he increased the hardiness 
of his flock. He has since been more careful in selecting 
new blood. 

He found that young turkeys that were kept near the 
house or under the trees in the orchard, did not thrive ; 
many had swelled heads and soon died. On the other 
hand, those placed on the highest and dryest pastures, 



TURKEYS OH THE FARM. 



311 




FIG. 122. PART WILD BLOOD BRONZE TURKEY. 



This bird, Eureka, was from a thoroughbred Brouze hen, while his sire had one- 
fourth wild blood. At sixteen months he weighed thirty-six pounds, and at 
twenty-eight months tipped the scales at forty-eight and one-half pounds, 
winning first prize both years at New England and York State poultry shows. 
The accession of wild blood only three removes back, even if it added noth- 
ing tff the great weight of this bird, unquestionably contributed to its vitality 
and the brilliancy of its plumage. 



312 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

where there were no trees and but a light growth of 
grass, did the best of all. He usually winters from 
twenty to thirty-five hen turkeys and two gobblers. One 
gobbler is sufficient, but the second is kept in case one 
should die or fail in any way. The gobblers weigh from 
thirty to thirty-five pounds and usually are kept two 
seasons, and the hens two or three seasons, old hens be- 
ing the surest breeders. They roost out in the trees 
the year through, and but few are lost. In the spring a 
sufficient number of nests are made for the hens by plac- 
ing barrels by the walls and fences near the house and 
barns, or by laying wide boards against the walls. In 
them is placed leaves or cut straw. The turkeys readily 
take possession of these nests, although some persist in 
seeking out one of their own. This is usually allowed, 
unless a swampy location, or one too far away, is chosen, 
when the nest is broken up and the hen induced to 
choose another. 

Sometimes several lay in the same nest. To prevent 
this, a nest in which a turkey has commenced to lay is, 
after she has deposited her egg, shut up for the remainder 
of the day, to keep out intruders. When the crows eat 
eggs laid in the nests that are far from the house, they 
are frightened away by strings stretched across near the 
nest. G-lass nest eggs are used. Eggs are gathered 
daily, to prevent their being chilled, and that rats may 
not get them. They are kept in pans, having a few oats 
in the bottom to prevent their rolling about. Each pan- 
ful holds two sittings, and is dated, that their age may 
be known. When a hen stays on the nest for two nights, 
seventeen of the oldest eggs are given her ; the eggs laid 
by her during the two days are not left in the nest. The 
nests are first shaped, so that they will not be so flat as 
to allow the eggs to roll out, or so deep as to cause them 
to be piled one upon another. The turkeys seem to do 
better if not fed while sitting. Those occupying nests 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 



313 




FIG. 123. THE PRIZE BRONZE TURKEY. 



This bird won the grand prize offered by the New York fanciers' club some years 
ago. He was two years old, weighed forty-five pounds, and was bred by 
Sherman Hartwell, of Connecticut. With seven fine hens, he was bought by 
William Simpson, and exhibited at numerous poultry shows in England, cap- 
turing prizes in every case, and proving 1 superior to any Encrlish-bred turkeys. 
The fine picture we present i-< from an instantaneous photograph by Smalls, 
taken for the American Agriculturist, and drawn by Keeler. 



314 PROFITS m POULTRY. 

near together are looked after daily, to see that they 
return to their own nests. 

Mr. Tucker at first experienced some trouble in hay- 
ing turkeys come off with a few young, those late in 
hatching being left to their fate. This was partly over- 
come by setting eggs of the same age. By feeding hens 
with dough when the eggs are due to hatch, they are 
also contented to stay on the nest longer. When the 
turkeys are a couple of days old and seem quite strong, 
they are placed in a basket, and, with the hen, removed 
to a remote part of the farm. Triangular pens, made of 
three boards, twelve feet long and one foot high, are 
placed in the fields, where it is intended the flocks shall 
stay until nearly grown. They are not located near 
together, lest the different flocks attract each other's 
attention. But four or five of the pens are put in a 
twenty-acre field. The little turkeys or poults are put 
in one of these pens with some dough, and the hen is 
gently placed beside them. In releasing the hen, Mr. 
Tucker takes pains to step quickly back toward the 
wind, that, if frightened, she may go in a direction in 
which the cries of her young may be heard and bring 
her to them. The pens are removed to fresh ground 
frequently. Care is taken that the pens are placed on 
ground free from hollows that may hold water, for some 
turkeys, when hovering their brood in such places, will 
remain in them while they fill with rain and the brood 
is drowned. After five or six days, when the young are 
strong enough to follow the hen without being worn-out, 
and have become so familiar with the attendant that 
they will come when called, they are let out of the pens 
and allowed free range. 

In feeding and looking after this number of turkeys, 
the attendant, usually one of Mr. Tucker's daughters, 
has to walk about three miles to go the rounds. Until 
four weeks old their food consists of corn meal mixed 



TURKEYS OK THE FARM. 315 

-with sour milk, and they are given sour milk to drink, 
no water being given them. When four weeks old, 
cracked corn is mixed with the meal, and the quantity 
is gradually increased, until at eight or ten weeks old 
their feed consists of cracked corn moistened with, sour 
milk. Until June 1st they are fed three times each day. 
From June 1st to July 15th they are fed twice a day. 
After this Mr. Tucker used to give them no feed until 
they commenced to come to the house, in the latter part 
of September, when a little whole corn was given them 
daily, but of late years, be has thought they did not get 
enough without it and has continued the feed the whole 
season. 

In November they are given all the corn they will eat. 
They like northern white flint corn the best, fatten most 
rapidly on it, and the quality of the flesh is also finer 
when it is given. If fed new corn, they have bowel 
trouble. Mr. Tucker usually gives old and new corn 
mixed, for fattening. When the young turkeys get to 
be the size of quails, two hens and their flocks usually 
join forces and roam together until fall. In the fall the 
sexes separate, the gobblers going together in one flock, 
and the hens in another. About Thanksgiving, the lit- 
ters hatched in the latter half of May weigh, gobblers 
eighteen to twenty pounds, and hens ten to eleven 
pounds each. Mr. Tucker does not care to raise second 
litters. When he has them, it is because the hens have 
stolen their nests. He has considerable loss among late 
turkeys, and if such birds are kept over winter they get 
sick more readily, and as disease spreads very quickly 
among turkeys, he looks upon them as disease breeders. 

The turkeys of the early litters that are lost generally 
die during the first week, or in August, when two or 
three months old. There are no foxes, weasels or skunks 
on the island. Mr. Tucker prefers birds with short legs, 
as they have the plumpest bodies. His turkeys are a 



316 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



mixture. Many are of a light gray color, similar to 
Narragansett turkeys. There are also buff, brown and 
dark ones. He prefers the brown and gray to the black, 
as they look better when dressed. He finds medium 
weights sell best except at Thanksgiving, Christmas or 
New Year's. 




CHAPTEE XXVII. 
DISEASES AND PESTS. 

BY JAMES RANKIN, WITH ADDITIONS BY THE EDITOR. 

Roup. — This is a disease very prevalent among fowls, 
and in its incipient stages sometimes makes its appear- 
ance in the form of a cold or slight catarrh. These 
troubles, if taken in time, are easily removed, but, if 
neglected, often result in serious loss. 

When fowls are confined in damp, filthy quarters, or 
when cold drafts of air come in contact with the fowls, 
or when they are kept in poorly ventilated buildings, 
roup is a frequent visitor (See Fig. 109). 

As this disease is very contagious, and often fatal, the 
affected fowl should be removed at once and placed in 
dry, warm quarters. The dried mucous should be re- 
moved from the nostrils ; the passage to the roof of the 
mouth thoroughly cleaned; the head and throat bathed 
in kerosene twice each day. The bird should be fed on 
stimulating and highly nutritious food. In the latter 
stages of the disease, the discharges from the nostrils be- 
come very offensive, the head begins to swell, and some- 
times one eye and occasionally both are closed. 

All this can usually be prevented if the birds are taken 
in time, but when in this condition must be fed by hand, 
with soft food mixed thin with milk and a little red 
pepper dusted in. Unless a fowl is very valuable the 
axe is the best remedy. 

The severity of roup varies from that of a mere cold 
in the head, to cases which are like diphtheria in human 
beings. In fact, there is doubtless more than one dis- 
ease, but all are commonly known as roup. While some 
(317) 



318 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

forms are easily cured, others are often fatal. But 
whether it be called roup, or distemper, or influenza, or 
fowl diphtheria, the symptoms, in a general way, are 
similar, likewise the treatment. It is claimed by some 
that the diphtheritic form of roup can be given to hu- 
man beings, and it is well to use care in handling the 
sick fowls, and to keep them away from children. 

Dr. V. A. Moore, of the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture, recommends the following mode of prevention 
and treatment : 

(1) Fowls which have a discharge on any of the mu- 
cous membranes of the head, or which have come from 
flocks in which such a disease exists or has recently ex- 
isted, should not be introduced among other poultry. 

(2) If the disease appears in one or more fowls of a 
flock, they should be immediately separated from the 
well ones. If possible, the source of the infection should 
be determined and removed. 

(3) The quite common practice of allowing fowls 
from different flocks to run together during the day 
should be discouraged. 

(4) Care should be taken to avoid the possibility of 
bringing the poison of the disease from affected flocks, in 

the dirt or excrement which naturally 
adheres to the shoes in walking through 
an infected chicken yard. The same 
care is necessary in the interchange of 
working implements, such as shovels, 
hoes, etc. 

FIG. 124. APPLYING T , . . , , , » . -, 

medicine for roup. It is evident to any carelnl observer 
that the fact is too often overlooked that fowls, owing 
to their method of living, are more liable to infection 
than other farm animals. This is especially true when 
they are allowed to run at random, as they too fre- 
quently are, picking their living from the garbage pile 
and barnyards, or securing even more unwholesome food. 




DISEASES AND PESTS. 319 

There is little doubt that many so-called outbreaks of 
contagious disease among fowls are brought about by 
improper care. The efficiency of these few suggestions 
in reference to the prevention of this disease, is demon- 
strated by the success of certain poultry raisers who ad- 
here strictly to the teachings of sanitary methods. 

The wide distribution, the large number of fowls af- 
fected, and the usual chronic course of this disease ren- 
der it one of the few poultry affections for which cura- 
tive measures promise to be of practical value. Although 
prevention is the safest of cures, when the disease is 
once introduced as it is in a very large number of flocks, 
the necessity for remedial treatment is apparent, and 
where economy is to be considered should be recom- 
mended. The practice sometimes followed of destroy- 
ing all of the affected birds should be discouraged. 
Although experiments have not been made to test the 
efficiency of remedies already recommended, or to inves- 
tigate the practicability of others, the testimony of many 
practical poultry raisers is, as previously stated, to the 
effect that the disease is amenable to treatment. - 

The most certain of the known methods of treatment 
is the local application of certain disinfectants, among 
which a weak solution of carbolic acid appears to be the 
most satisfactory. The fact that the lesions are so much 
exposed renders the disease especially favorable for 
local applications. The administration of mild stimu- 
lants has also been recommended. In addition to the 
medicinal treatment, it is of much importance that the 
affected fowls be provided with proper food and kept in 
dry, warm, and well-ventilated apartments. 

If the disease has reached its third stage, it is fre- 
quently necessary to remove the sloughed exudate before 
the disinfectant is applied. 

The following, recommended by another authority, 
will be found to be excellent treatment for all stages of 
the disease, combined with nutritious, soft food : 



320 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

Pills. — Sulphate of copper, half grain ; cayenne pepper, 
one grain; hydrastine, half grain; copaiba, three drops; 
Venetian turpentine, quarter section. In pill night and 
morning. 

Lotion. — Sulphate of copper, quarter ounce, dissolved 
in a pint of rain water. To wash out the mouth and 
nostrils, if required. 

Cramp, though usually attributed to damp quarters, 
is mainly the result of too highly concentrated food, 
coupled with too little exercise. Who ever saw chicks 
troubled with cramp when allowed to run out of doors, 
even in warm rain and dew, so long as they had plenty 
of grass and insects for dessert, and plenty of exercise 
to stimulate action in their digestive organs ? 

On the contrary, I was once called to a case where a 
man had just lost two hundred fine chicks from this 
trouble, and three hundred more a little younger were 
just coming down with it, and this in a building the 
floor of which was made of dry boards on which had 
been spread an inch of dry sand. A uniform tempera- 
ture of 70° had been preserved in the room night and 
day. These chicks had been carefully shielded from 
dampness. This was in March. 

I told him to clear away the snow from his building, 
in front, turn his chicks out when pleasant, give them 
plenty of boiled potatoes, chopped cabbage, feed on 
bread crumbs and baker's dust mixed with sour milk, 
with a little animal food, and report the result to me. 
At the end of a fortnight a letter from him reported two 
of the cases dead and the rest as lively as crickets, every 
symptom of the disease having disappeared. 

Bumble-foot usually confines itself to the Asiatics 
and heavier breeds. When it first appears, the bird 
should be removed to dry quarters, with clean straw. 
The skin over the inflamed part should be shaved away 
a little, and caustic applied, which will nearly reduce 



DISEASES AND PESTS. 



321 



the swelling. If that fails and the swelling becomes 
large, soft, and full of pus, it should be opened the pus 
removed and the wound thoroughly 
washed out with warm water, when 
it will usually heal. 

Scaly Legs. — Scabby leg, leg 
rot, scaly leg, elephantiasis, and 
bumble-foot. This well-known dis- 
ease, under its various names, is 
also due to a mite, the Sar copies 
mutatis. This mite affects most 
birds, and has been known for some 
considerable time. The creature ap- 
parently only affects the legs of 
birds, the similar disease of the 
head being due in all cases to a fun- 
goid pest. 

The diseased limbs become covered 
with rough, lumpy crusts, which 
can be removed with a blunt knife, 
but unless the limb is moistened 
with soft soap and warm water, the 
removal leads to violent bleeding, 
which should be avoided. This sarcoptic mite lives and 
breeds under the scales of the feet and legs, gradually 

raising them up and form- 
ing beneath them a white, 
powdery mass. The crusts 
formed are generally hol- 
low, and contain a spongy 
mass internally, in the lower 
parts of which are to be 
found the pests in all stages. 
They sometimes produce such violent inflammation and 
disease that the toe or affected parts drop off. The dis- 
ease grows very slowly, some birds living over a year, but 
21 




FIG. 125. BAD CASE OF 
SCALY LEG. 




FIG. 126. MITE WHICH CAUSES 
scabby leg (magnified). 



322 profits 12* poultry. 

if neglected, leads to emaciation and death. The dis- 
ease is contagious, but not severely. If fowls have plenty 
of run they are less liable to contract these sarcoptic dis- 
eases than when kept in confined spaces. Dorkings 
seem comparatively free from this disease. Houdans 
and Cochins seem very liable to it. The diseased growth 
may readily be mistaken for the deformities seen on 
birds' wattles, but the cause is quite distinct. They 
both, however, yield to the same treatment. Several 
cases of so-called "Bumble-Foot" that I have examined, 
were due to the work of the mite, but others contained 
no traces of sarcoptes. 

Prevention and Remedies. — Isolation of patients and 
disinfection of runs is most essential. Removal of 
crusts without causing bleeding, and then the applica- 
tion of either creosote (one part) and lard (twenty parts), 
or balsam of Peru, will be found sufficient. Oil of tur- 
pentine has still more definite results, I find, but the, 
dressed limbs must afterward be treated with sweet oil, 
to allay subsequent irritation. 

Gapes. — This disease is caused by small red worms 
accumulating in the throat of the chick, and the disease 
is usually 4 denizen of damp, filthy quar- 
ters. The first thing is to thoroughly 
iape clean and disinfect the buildings and 
7eSefSATUK22y ards - Put the affected chicks into bar- 
size. re ] s an( j circulate dry air-slaked lime freely 

among them. Inhaling this will cause them to cough 
and throw up the worms. Gapes may be prevented by 
rubbing the neck with one part turpentine thoroughly 
mixed with three parts lard. 

Entomologist McCarthy, of the North Carolina Ex- 
periment Station, recommends boiling salt water sprin- 
kled on the ground as a disinfectant, and a teaspoonful 
of turpentine and one of asafoetida in warm bran mash 
for each twenty-five birds. A pill of camphor, the size 



DISEASES AXD PESTS. 



323 




FIG. 128. CHICK WITH GAPES, 
the trachea pinned open. A. the 



of a wheat grain, pushed down the throat, often gives 

good results. One-third ounce of salicylic acid should 

be added to each quart of the fowls' drinking water. 

By the fumigation treatment, 

the sick birds are shut in a 

large dry goods box, in which 

is burned a mixture of equal 

parts of turpentine, sulphur 

and pine tar. After a quarter 

of an hour, or as soon as the 

fowls begin to be overcome by 

the fumes, take them into the 

open air. 

Feather-eating is more an. 
idle, vicious habit than a dis- 
ease, superinduced by idleness 
and close confinement, or pos- 

eiKlv n prnvincrfor animal fnnrl Kjottis or opening through whiten 
SIDJy a Craving 101 dllllliai lOOU. air enters the trachea from the 
n , n r* t l ■ -i mouth; B, the cut end of the oesoph- 

Separate the o trending bird, agus; c, the cut neck, 
or the feather-eating will become general. Rub the 
feathers near the picked places with powdered aloes 
mixed with lard. 

Diarrhoea. — Dust a little powdered chalk and cay- 
enne pepper into boiled milk, feed on soft food, and 
withhold vegetables for a few days. 

Whenever a fowl hangs its wings, and looks drooping, 
let it be seen to at once, whether it appears purged, and 
if so, give immediately, in a teaspoon ful of warm water, 
a teaspoonful of strong brandy or whisky saturated with 
camphor. Repeat this the next morning, and in most 
cases the disease will be checked ; care being, of course, 
taken to give the invalid warmth and good shelter. 
The best food is warm barley meal, or rice meal mixed 
with lime water. If these measures do not promptly 
check the discharge, give the following powder, mixed 
up with a little meal : Take powdered chalk, 5 grains j 



324 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



cayenne pepper, 2 grains ; powdered rhubarb 5 grains. 
This scarcely ever fails when the case is not desperate. 

Tapeworms. — Tapeworms are very common in poultry, 
'and are sometimes so numerous as to close the passage, 
or cause diarrhoea, sluggishness and fits. Not only 
hens, but ducks, geese and turkeys are infected. The 
worms do come to the fowls directly from the egg, but 
the young of the tapeworms infest earthworms and other 
insects which are eaten by poultry. "When swallowed 
by poultry, they develop into full growth. Young birds 




FIG. 129. 

a, Piece of intestine of fowl, showing nodnles, several small worms, and one 
large worm, b, Intestine, roughened by tapeworms, c, Interior of intestine, 
snowing wall thickened by action of worms; also part of a worm which has 
penetrated the lining. 

suffer more than old ones, and more in wet seasons than 
in dry. If numerous tapeworms are present in the in- 
testine of young or old fowls, a more or less extensive 
intestinal catarrh develops, corresponding to the greater 
or less number of parasites present. 

The intestinal catarrh shows itself, especially in chick- 
ens and geese, as follows : The sick animals become 
emaciated, although the appetite is not especially dis- 
turbed. At times the appetite is even increased. The 



DISEASES AND PESTS. 



325 



droppings are thin, contain considerable yellow slime, 
and are passed in small quantities but at short intervals. 
The poultry raiser must direct his attention to these 
thin, slimy, and often bloody droppings, for if any treat- 
ment against the tapeworms is to be undertaken, this 
must be done as early as possible. In observing the 
droppings, it should be noticed whether tapeworm seg- 
ments or eggs are present. The eggs can be seen, of 
course, only with the microscope. The birds become 




FIG. 130. TAPEWORM FROM A TURKEY. 

listless and drooping, with ruffled feathers. An unusual 
desire for cold water is considered a symptom. 

The best method for the farmer to follow is to kill 
one of the sick chickens, when he suspects tapeworms, 
and to cut out the intestine ; he should then open the 
intestinal tract from the gizzard to the anus, in a bowl 
of warm water, and look for the tapeworms. 

In the line of prevention, chickens will be less likely 
to become infected if not allowed to roam until the sun 
is well up and the ground dry. To prevent spread of 
the worms, destroy the manure of infected fowls, or use 
it where it can do no harm. Sulphuric acid and water, 
or quicklime, will destroy the eggs. 



326 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

Treatment. — First, separate the fowls ; second, destroy 
infected droppings. The chief drugs used against tape- 
worms are : Extract of male fern, turpentine, powdered 
kamala, areca nut, pomegranate root hark, pumpkin 
seeds and sulphate of copper (bluestone). According to 
Ziirn, powdered areca nut is the best tapeworm remedy 
for fowls, but he calls attention to the fact that turkeys 
are unfavorably affected by this medicine. He advises 
the administration of powdered areca nut in doses of 2 
to 3 grams (=30 to 45 grains), mixed with butter and 
made into pills. 

Liquid extract of male fern is very effectual against 
tapeworms. Hutcheon adyises a teaspoonful for young 
ostriches three to four months old, to a tablespoonful 
for a full-grown ostrich ; it may be made into a pill 
with flour. The dose recommended by the department 
of agriculture is from one to three tablespoonfuls of tur- 
pentine, according to the size of the chicken. 

The illustration, Fig. 129, shows a form of tapeworm 
disease sometimes mistaken for tuberculosis. The nod- 
ules in the intestines look like the tubercles of the other 
disease, but if the surface of the intestines is carefully 
washed the small worms can be seen. 

Cholera is a terrible scourge — the worst with which 
the poultry grower has to contend. It not only deci- 
mates, but often destroys whole flocks. It is far more 
prevalent in the West and South than in the East and 
North. There is no doubt but that low, marshy 
grounds, and damp, filthy quarters, will encourage the 
disease and predispose fowls to its ravages. In careful 
experiments by Prof. Pasteur, of the London interna- 
tional medical college, it was found that the blood, body 
and excrements of the diseased fowl were filled with 
minute organisms. One drop of this blood introduced 
into a little chicken soup will speedily affect it in the 
same manner, and so on even to the hundredth depart- 



DISEASES AND PESTS. 327 

ure, and one drop of the last dilution is equally as deadly 
as the original drop of blood from the diseased fowl. 

The disease first makes its appearance in the urates, 
giving them a yellowish cast. These discharges, as the 
disease advances, gradually become more frequent and 
copious, and the bird becomes weaker, sometimes living 
several days, and often dying in twenty-four hours. 
Fowl cholera is not only the most fatal, but the most 
contagious of all poultry diseases. 

Now, as every part of these excrements is filled with 
the microscopic life of the cholera, it will be seen how 
necessary it is to thoroughly clean and disinfect the 
building and confine the affected fowls by themselves. 

In an experiment, some time since, a number of dis- 
eased fowls were confined by themselves, and fed on soft 
food into which was mixed a small quantity of medicine 
composed of equal parts of asafoetida, hypophosphate 
of soda and saffron, ground together, a little cayenne 
pepper being sprinkled in the food also. The drinking 
water was treated with the Douglas mixture. Three- 
fourths of the fowls thus treated recovered. In another 
lot, simply confined and fed without any treatment, the 
disease proved fatal in every case. 

The great point is to avoid contagion. Deodorize 
everything in connection with the buildings, and have 
all infected matter burned. This alone will destroy the 
minute organism of fowl cholera. 

Blackhead of Turkeys. — An infectious disease of 
the intestines and liver, commonly known as blackhead 
of turkeys, has prevailed very extensively in Ehode 
Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and probably also 
in other turkey- raising districts, although the disease 
has been scientifically investigated in the New England 
sections only. The disease is caused by a small parasite, 
which first attacks the caecum or pronged part of the 
lower bowel, causing it to become thickened, enlarged, 



338 PEOFITS m POULTKT. 

and full of sores. Next, the liver becomes spotted, and 
covered with round, yellowish patches. Young turkeys 
are attacked. Many die in July and August and in 
the fall. The symptoms are, diarrhoea, roughened feath- 
ers, and purplish or " black" head. The disease spreads 
from one bird to another. 

Dr. Theobald Smith, of the U. S. Bureau of animal 
industry, recommends the disinfection of the coops and 
other structures designed to give shelter to turkeys. 
The following disinfectants are strong enough to kill 
spores of bacteria : 

(a) Corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride), one ounce 
in about eight gallons of water (one-tenth of one per 
cent). The water should be put into wooden tubs or 
barrels, and the powdered sublimate added to it. The 
whole must be allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, 
so as to give the sublimate an opportunity to become 
entirely dissolved. Since this solution is poisonous, it 
should be kept covered up and well guarded. It may 
be applied with a broom or mop, and used freely on all 
woodwork. Since it loses its vir tue in j)roportion to the 
amount of dirt present, all manure and other dirt should 
be first removed before applying the disinfectant. The 
manure should be covered with lime. 

(h) Chloride of lime, five ounces to a gallon of water 
(four per cent). This should be applied in the same way. 

(c) The following disinfectant is very serviceable. It 
is not poisonous, but quite corrosive, and care should be 
taken to protect the eyes and hands from accidental 
splashing : Crude carbolic acid, one-half gallon ; crude 
sulphuric acid, one-half gallon. 

These two substances should be mixed in tubs or glass 
vessels. The sulphuric acid is very slowly added to the 
carbolic acid. During the mixing a large amount of 
heat is developed. The disinfecting power of the mix- 
ture is heightened if the amount of heat is kept down 



DISEASES AND PESTS. 



329 



by placing the tub or glass demijohn containing the car- 
bolic acid in cold water while the sulphuric acid is being 
added. The resulting mixture is added to water in the 
ratio of one to twenty. One gallon of mixed acids will 
thus furnish twenty gallons of a strong disinfecting so- 
lution, having a slightly milky appearance. 

(d) Ordinary slaked lime, though it does not possess 
the disinfecting power of the substances given above, is 
nevertheless very useful, and should be used more par- 
ticularly on infected soil. 

Lice and Mites. — These pests are a great trouble to 
the poultry grower, and need incessant vigilance on his 
part. There are two 
kinds of lice with which 
he has to contend. The 
larger, or body, lice find 
their home among the 
feathers of the fowl. She 
will usually rid herself 
of them when provided 
with a proper dust bath. 
The smaller parasite, or fig. m. common kinds of hen lice. 

the little red mite, is the N - Pallidum. G. Abdominalis. 

most troublesome. When once they have obtained pos- 
session, the only remedy is to fumigate thoroughly with 
burning brimstone. No living thing can withstand that. 
Then whitewash the whole inside of the building. 

As in everything else, so here, a little prevention is 
worth a great deal of cure. These little mites originate 
on the perches, and are never on the fowl's body except 
to feed. Judging from sad experience, they have as- 
tonishing facilities for the reproduction of their sj^ecies. 

It is easy to avoid the red mites when you know how. 
Procure for perches planed spruce joists, two by three 
inches in size, and as long as required. Cover them 
with hot coal tar, and you will have no lice for at least 




330 



PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



one year. I have perches that were so painted three 
years ago; they have been in constant nse ever since, 
and there has been neither tar nor lice on them since. 
Every one knows that this tar is an odoriferous com- 
pound. It is excessively obnoxious to the lice. Kero- 
sene or diluted carbolic acid applied to the roosts and 
crevices is a good remedy. 

An insect which almost makes life a burden to the 
southern poultry keeper is the nest bug, a near relative 
of the bed bug. It commonly infests nests, and will 
often compel sitting hens to leave 
their eggs. As will be seen by the 
smaller illustration, it is an insect of 
considerable size. The treatment is 
the same as for the small ticks, or 
mites. Kerosene is a good remedy, 
also insect powder and tobacco dust. 
Burn old nests. 

The lice may be found, by careful 
examination, especially about the 
head and neck and under the joints 
of win^s and le^s. Whenever a fowl 
appears out of sorts, it is safe to sus- 
pect lice. A great deal of apparent 
sickness is merely lice. Young chick- 
ens are most dangerously affected. 
They mope about, will not eat, bodies are small, thin 
and stunted, they peep a great deal, sometimes lose their 
feathers, or waste away and die. Large lice on the head 
or throat often cause the apparently mysterious death of 
chicks. They hide at the base of the feathers, and are 
not easily seen. Most chicks raised by hens are some- 
what infested. A single big head louse is enough to 
make trouble for a chick. 

Mr. E. W. Parker, writing in one of the poultry 
papers, gives a good idea of how indifferent one may be, 




FIG. 132. NEST BUG. 

An insect very trouble- 
some in the South. Na 
ural size and magnified. 



DISEASES A^D PESTS. 



331 



He says: "Iti July and August especially (but at all 
times of the year) lice abound more than at any other 
time, and chicks will become infested with them unless 
great care is taken. Many persons wonder why their 
young chicks droop and die, mope around for a week or 
two, all the time getting thinner and weaker, finally be- 
come unable to stand, and die — these persons claiming 
all the time that 'lice is not the cause of it,' because 
they haye searched under the wing for the red or yellow 




FIG. 133. THE TICK, MITE, OR SPIDER LOUSE. 
a, Adult; b, tarsus; c, mouth parts; d and e, young— all enlarged. 

louse, or the head for the large head louse, and in fact 
have looked them from top to bottom for parasites and 
have found none. I wonder if they have ever looked on 
the throat, or at the side below the ears, for the large 
head louse. I wonder if it entered into the brain of 
such breeders that the head louse could destroy the life 
of chicks from two to six weeks old by sucking the life- 
blood from the throat and under the head. If it has 
not, I can tell them that such is the case, and I say 
without fear of contradiction that when the chick ap- 



332 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 

pears weak, growing weaker and thinner, the skin seems 
to shrink upon the body, and there is a slimy discharge 
from the body, and when the chick eats it is usually 
with difficult}', and as the supposed disease advances it 
seems almost impossible for the chick to swallow, finally 
refusing to eat. When any or all of these symptoms ap- 
pear, then examine the under part of the head and the 
throat and at the sides for the head louse, and nine 
times out of ten he will be found snugly at home among 
the down or sprouting feathers ; then apply two-thirds 
glycerine, one-third carbolic acid, and five times as much 
water as the above mixture." 

A few general measures will answer for all kinds of 
lice. To smoke them oat is a very thorough way, if the 
house is tight enough to hold the fumes. Where the 
house can be made tight an excellent plan is to fumigate 
it with pure carbon bisulphide once every two months. 
This is done by simply pouring the bisulphide into an 
open saucer, using about one pound for each one thou- 
sand cubic feet of space in the house. Close the house 
tightly, and leave for at least twelve hours. Bisulphide 
of carbon is very explosive, and must not be brought 
near a fire or light. It is very sure, and will kill any 
insect. Besides sulphur, already mentioned, tobacco 
stems are very commonly used for smoking. The smoke 
must be very dense, and should remain in the house at 
least twelve hours. If the first smoking does not kill 
all, repeat the operation. Another good way is to drench 
the roosts with kerosene or hot water, followed by white- 
washing, and the use of tar on the ends of the poles and 
wherever they come in contact with supports. The ad- 
dition of four ounces of crude carbolic acid to the gallon 
of whitewash increases its efficiency for this purpose. 
Eepeated applications may be necessary, but due atten- 
tion to reaching all points to which the pests resort will 
keep the nuisance in check at least. For the red mites 



DISEASES AND PESTS. 333 

much the same treatment is needed as for common lice. 
Clear the house, then spray well with kerosene or kero- 
sene emulsion, taking pains to reach the cracks ; thor- 
oughly drench the roosts with hot water or kerosene, 
benzine or gasoline, whitewash the house, or dust with 
carbolated lime, and then daub the ends of the roosts, 
where they come in contact with supports, with coal 
tar, so the mites will have to cross it to reach the fowls. 

Douglas's Tonic Poultry Mixture. — Take sulphate 
of iron, half a pound ; sulphuric acid, 1 oz ; pure soft 
water, 2 gallons. Mix, and give to the fowls by adding 
one teaspoonful to each pint of their drinking water. 

Parrish's Chemical Food (An English tonic). — 
Protosulphate of iron, 10 dr.; phosphate of soda, 12 dr.; 
phosphate of lime, 12 dr.; phosphoric acid, glacial, 20 
clr. ; carbonate of soda, 2 scruples ; carbonate of potassa, 
1 dr.; muriatic acid and water of ammonia, each a suffi- 
cient quantity; powdered cochineal, 2 dr.; water suffi- 
cient to make 20 fluid ounces ; sugar, 3 lbs. troy ; oil of 
orange, 10 minims. 

Cholera Disinfectant Mixture. — Mix sulphuric 
acid, 8 ounces ; pure soft water, 8 gallons. This dilute. 
Sulphuric acid is a good preparation whenever the houses 
or grounds need purifying after an infectious disease. 



334 



PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 




FIG. 134. TYPES OF FEATHERS. 

1. Striped. 2. Laced 3, 4. Spangled. 5. Pencilled. 6, 7, 8. Mottled. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
POULTRY DICTIONARY AND CALENDAR. 

Beard — A bunch of feathers under the throat of some 

breeds, as Houdans. 
Breed — Any variety of fowl presenting distinct char 

acteristics. 
Brood — Family of chickens cared for by one hen. 
Broody — Desiring to sit or incubate. 
Carriage — Bearing, attitude, or " style." 
Carunculated — Covered with fleshy protuberances, as on 

the neck of a turkey cock. 
Chick — A newly hatched fowl. Used only while but a 

few weeks old. 
Chicken— This word is often applied to any age indefi- 
nitely until twelve months old. 
Clutch — This term is applied both to the batch of eggs 

sat upon by the fowl, and also to the brood of chick- 
ens hatched therefrom. 
Cockerel — A young cock. 
Crop — The bag or receptacle in which food is stored 

before digestion. Can be easily felt in any fowl after 

feeding. 
Cushion — The mass of feathers over the tail end of a 

hen's back, covering the tail ; chiefly developed in 

Cochins. 
Deaf-ears — The folds of skin hanging from the true ears; 

same as ear lobes. They vary in color, being blue, 

white, cream-colored or red. 
Dubbing — Cutting off the comb, wattles, etc., so as to 

leave the head smooth and clean. 
Ear lobes — Same as deaf -ears. 
(335) 



336 PROFITS I2ST POULTRY. 

Face — The bare skin around the eye. 

Flights — The primary feathers of the wing, used in flying, 
but tucked under the wing out of sight when at rest. 

Fluff — Soft, downy feathers about the thighs, chiefly 
developed in Asiatics. 

Furnished — Assumed the full characters. When a cock- 
erel has obtained full tail, comb, hackles, etc., as if 
adult, he is said to be furnished. 

Gills — This term is often applied to the wattles, and 
sometimes more indefinitely to the whole region of the 
throat. 

Hackles — The peculiar narrow feathers on the neck of 
fowls, also found in the saddle of the cock. In the 
latter case they are called " saddle" hackles or feath- 
ers (See saddle below). Hackles used alone always 
refer to the neck feathers. 

Hen-feathered, or henny — Resembling a hen in the ab- 
sence of sickles, or hackle feathers, and in plumage 
generally. 

Hock — The knee or elbow joint of the leg. 

Keel — Sometimes used to denote breastbone. 

Leg — In a live fowl this is the scaly part, or shank. In 
the bird dressed for the table, on the contrary, the 
term refers to the joints above. 

Leg feathers — The feathers projecting from the outside 
of the shanks, in some breeds, as Cochins. 

Mossy — Confused or indistinct in the markings. 

Pea comb — A triple comb, resembling three small combs 
in one, the middle being highest. 

Pencilling — Small markings or stripes over a feather. 
These may run either straight across, as in Hamburg's, 
or in a crescentic form, as in Partridge Cochins. 

Poult — A young turkey. 

Primaries — The flight feathers of the wings, hidden 
when the wing is closed, being tucked under the visi- 
ble wing composed of the " secondary " feathers. Usu- 



POULTRY DICTIONARY AND CALENDAR. 337 

ally the primaries contain the deepest color all over 
the body, except the tail ; great importance is attached 
to their color by breeders. 

Pullet — A young hen. The term is not properly appli- 
cable after Dec. 31st of the year in which a bird is 
hatched, though often used during the early months 
of the next year. 

Eooster — An American term for a cock. 

Saddle — The posterior part of the back, reaching the 
tail, in a cock, answering to the cushion in a hen; 
often, however, applied to both sexes, cushion being 
more restricted to a great development, as in Cochins; 
"saddle" may be applied to any breed. 

Secondaries — The quill feathers of the wing which show 
when the bird is at rest. 

Self-color — A uniform tint over the feathers. 

Shaft — The stem or quill of a feather. 

Shank — The scaly part of the leg. 

Sickles — The top curved feathers of a cock's tail. Prop- 
erly only applied to the top pair, but sometimes used 
for one or two pairs below, which can hardly be called 
tail coverts. 

Spangling — The marking produced by each feather hav- 
ing one large spot or slash of some color different 
from the ground. 

Spur — The sharp, offensive weapon on the heel of a cock. 

Squirrel-tailed — The tail projecting in front of a perpen- 
dicular line over the back. 

Stag — Another name for a young cock, chiefly used by 
game fanciers. 

Strain — A race of fowls which, having been carefully 
bred by one breeder or his successors for years, has 
acquired individual character of its own which can be 
more or less relied upon. 

Symmetry — Perfection of proportion ; often confounded 
with carriage, but quite distinct, as a bird may be 



S3 8 PROFITS m POULTRY. 

nearly perfect in proportion, and yet "carry" him- 
self awkwardly. 

Tail coverts — The soft, glossy, curved feathers at the 
sides of the bottom of the tail, usually the same color 
as the tail itself. 

Tail feathers — The straight and stiff feathers of the tail 
only. The top pair are sometimes slightly curved, 
but they are nearly always, if not quite, straight, and 
are contained inside the sickles and tail coverts. 

Thighs — The joint above the shanks, the first joint 
clothed with feathers. The same as the drumstick in 
dressed fowls. 

Topknot — Same as crest. 

Trio — A cock or cockerel and two hens or pullets. 

Under-color — The color of the plumage seen when the 
surface has been lifted. It chiefly depends on the 
down seen at root of every feather. 

Vulture hocks — Stiff projecting feathers at the hock 
joint. The feathers must be both stiff and projecting 
to be thus truly called and condemned. 

Wattles — The red depending structures on each side of 
the base of the beak. Chiefly developed in the male 
sex. 

Web — This term is indefinite, expressing a flat and thin 
structure. The web of a feather is the flat or plume 
portion ; the web of the foot, the flat skin between 
the toes ; of the wing, the triangular skin seen when 
the member is extended. 

Wing bar — Any line of dark color across the middle of 
the wing, caused by the color or marking of the feath- 
ers known as the lower wing coverts. 

Wing bow — The upper or shoulder part of wing. 

Wing butts — The corners or ends of the wing. The 
upper ends are more properly called the shoulder 
butts, and are thus termed by game fanciers. The 
lower, similarly, are called the lower butts. 



POULTEY DICTIONARY AND CALENDAR. 339 

Wing coverts — The broad feathers covering the roots of 
the secondary quills. 

CALENDAR OF POULTRY WORK. 

January. — Make poultry houses as warm and dry as 
possible, stopping cracks and crevices, taking care to pre- 
vent drafts on the birds at night. Fowls should have a 
warm feed all through the cold weather, at least once a 
day. Feed cut bone two or three times a week. Sort 
the birds closely, and don't keep any surplus. Study 
the mating, so that no time will be lost at breeding sea- 
son. When whole grain is fed at night, it is well to 
warm it in the oven. Plenty of grit is important. 
Hang up cabbages for green food. Feed some meat and 
cut bone twice a week. Keep the incubators running 
for early broilers. Keep brooders in repair. 

February. — Protection against cold is important this 
month, but the fowls should have exercise in an open 
shed attached to the house. A curtain should be at- 
tached, to be let down stormy days. Warm mash for 
breakfast, green bone and meat should be continued. 
Mating should be finished by this time. Select only the 
vigorous birds. Weaklings, however well marked, are 
useless in the breeding pen. Feed plenty of bone and 
meat to the breeders, and make them exercise, in order 
to secure fertile eggs. Droppings should not be allowed 
to collect more than a day or two. Keep the floor cov- 
ered with litter. This is the worst month for roup, 
which can be prevented by dry, warm houses, with no 
drafts upon the fowls, especially at night. 

March. — Feeding is much the same as during the pre- 
ceding month, but rather less whole corn should be 
given. Feed more wheat instead. If the breeding pens 
have been made up at least four weeks before, eggs may 
now be set for early chicks. Chicks hatched the last of 
March will not usually molt before winter, and will be"* 



340 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 

the best winter layers. Large breeds should be hatched 
early, to secure laying pullets before winter. Small 
breeds will do well enough, hatched the last of April. 
See that the hens are set properly on the nests, carefully 
made, and guard against lice on sitting hens. Watch 
the hens, to be sure they attend to business. Fix up 
the brooders and coops for the chickens. Lath fences 
for the fowls can be nailed together indoors in stormy 
weather. 

April. — Feed the laying hens plenty of egg-making 
food, such as meat and cut bone. The early chicks 
should have increasing attention. Feed them often, but 
only what they will eat up clean. Supply with fresh 
water, fresh charcoal, fine, coarse grit or fresh sand. A 
good food for young chickens consists of one pound corn 
meal, one-half pound middlings, one and one-half pounds 
ground meat, two ounces bone meal and a very little 
salt, mixed with milk or water, and baked, then fed 
in crumbs every two hours. After the first week, three 
or four times a day will be often enough to feed, except 
when finishing for market. Hens which prove good 
mothers may be given two broods of the same age, join- 
ing the broods at night. 

May. — The early chicks should be pushed with plenty 
of wholesome food and a good variety. They should be 
given some soft feed each day. Give them as free a 
range as possible. Cracked corn should be fed with care 
to very young chicks. A ration of bones and meat once 
a week Avill be sufficient for chicks. Hatching may be 
continued for the smaller breeds, but the Asiatics and 
other large breeds should be all out before this month. 
Lice may give some trouble this month, and should be 
fought with vigor. Provide a dust bath. Eub fresh 
insect powder upon sitting hens. Whitewash and fumi- 
gate the houses. Kerosene the roosts. Don't give the 
chicks soured food. 



POULTRY DICTIONARY AKD CALENDAR. 341 

June. — During the hot weather some kind of shade 
should be provided. It is almost as important as sun- 
shine in winter. The food need not be as hearty as in 
cold weather. Green stuff must be abundant; bran, 
ground oats and wheat should be the staple food. 
Small breeds may be fed considerable corn. Early 
chickens should be pushed rapidly, and the surplus may 
be marketed at this time. Separate cockerels from pul- 
lets when finishing for market. Be sure that the water 
supply is abundant and clean. 

July. — This is a trying month, on account of the heat. 
If there is no natural shade, make it by growing a crop, 
such as corn or sunflowers. Plenty of water is desirable. 
A little tincture of iron in the drinking water is" an ex- 
cellent tonic. Busty nails will give some iron tonic. 
The old hens not needed for breeding should be sold. 
Move the small coops often and dig over the permanent 
runs. 

August. — Some attention is needed to bring the hens 
through the molting season in good condition. Feed 
considerable lean meat, cut bone, wheat and oats, with 
a little linseed meal in the morning mash. Plenty of 
green food is necessary if the fowls are kept shut up. 
Continue a little iron tonic with the drinking water. 
Continue to sort out the larger chicks and market them. 
Don't sell those needed for breeding. Kef use apples 
and vegetables will be appreciated by the hens. Hens 
which get through molting quickest and in best condi- 
tion are the most vigorous, and should be kept for 
breeders. 

September. — Buildings should be cleaned thoroughly, 
whitewashed and made ready for cooler weather. The 
laying stock may be moved to winter quarters and pushed 
for egg production. Give a variety of grain diet ard 
whatever green food can be had. Feed cut bones twice 
a week. Birds for exhibition should be made ready a 



342 PROFITS IN" POULTRY. 

week or two before sending to the show. Accustom 
them to being kept in the exhibition coop, and get them 
as tame as possible. Look them oyer carefully to see 
that they are in condition to appear their best. Feed 
waste vegetables and fruit to the hens. 

October. — Cool weather will bring on disease, if care 
is not taken. The most common disease is roup, which 
is caused by dampness and draft in almost every case, 
unless caught from other fowls. Drafts which cause a 
current of air to blow over the fowls at night are espe- 
cially dangerous. At the first signs of disease, separate 
the sick fowls from the well, place in a warm room, and 
feed carefully. The iron tonic in the drinking water is 
excellen t. Lay in a stock of cheap vegetables for winter use. 

November. — If not done before, the houses should be 
put in order for the winter. Even on cold days, the 
hens should be turned into the scratching shed for exer- 
cise. The great secret of eggs in November, is to make 
the hens work for their food. Plenty of litter should 
cover the entire floor of the scratching shed. Any kind 
of litter will do. The grain should be scattered over the 
litter. Hens that are not through molting at this time 
will be worthless, and might as well be sold, if kept 
merely for the value of the eggs. Use as much green 
food as possible, and feed boiled vegetables with the 
grain mash in the morning. November is a critical 
month, and if the pullets do not begin to shell out now, 
it will be a hard winter for their owner. 

December. — Examine your own methods carefully, 
and see what can be improved. The skill of a poultry 
grower is shown, in securing eggs during cold weather. 
If the fowls don't lay, blame yourself and not the vari- 
ety. There is real satisfaction and plenty of profit in 
December eggs. Everybody wants them and will pay a 
good price. There is no egg producer like cut bone and 
a little fresh meat fed to April-hatched pullets. 



POULTRY DICTIONARY AND CALENDAR. 343 



KEEPING EGGS. 

Hundreds of rules have been given for putting up 
cheap eggs, to be kept until prices rise in late autumn 
and winter. The most careful experiments on record 
have been made by German scientists. 

After eight months of preservation, 400 eggs, divided 
into 20 different parcels for that many methods of exper- 
iment, were examined, with heterogeneous results. 
Upon opening for use the eggs presented the following 
results, according to the parcels originally numbered : 
1. Eggs put up for preservation in salt water were all 
bad ; not rotten, but uneatable, the salt having pene- 
trated into the eggs. 2. Wrapped in paper, 80 per cent 
bad. 3. Preserved in a solution of salicylic acid and 
glycerine, 80 per cent bad. 4. Rubbed with salt, 70 
per cent bad. 5. Preserved in bran, 70 per cent bad. 

6. Provided with a covering of paraffin, 70 j>er cent bad. 

7. Varnished with a solution of glycerine and salicylic 
acid, 70 per cent bad. 8. Put in boiling water for 12 to 
1.5 seconds, 50 per cent bad. 9. Treated with a solution 
of alum, 50 per cent bad. 10. Put in a solution of sali- 
cylic acid, 50 per cent bad. 11. Varnished with water 
glass, 40 -per cent bad. 12. Varnished with collodion, 
40 per cent bad. 13. Covered with lac (probably shel- 
lac varnish), 40 per cent bad. 14. Varnished with 
swarcl, 20 per cent bad. 15. Preserved in wood ashes, 
20 per cent bad. 16. Treated with boric acid and water 
glass, 20 per cent bad. 17. Treated with manganate of 
potash, 20 per cent bad. 18. Varnished with vaseline, 
all good. 19. Preserved in lime water, all good. 20. 
Preserved in a solution of water glass, all good. 

Water Glass is a soluble silicate of soda, and makes 
the shell air-tight. Use one part, by measure, of water 
glass to ten parts water. It appears to be the best of 
the methods. Before boiling eggs which have been kept 



344 PROFITS IN PO. LTRY. 

by water glass, the shell should be pricked with a strong 
needle, to prevent bursting. Water glass may be ordered 
of druggists. Lime water ranks next to, water glass. 
The main objection is the slightly musty flavor imparted 
by the lime. To pickle eggs, dissolve one pint of fresh 
slaked stone lime and a pint of salt in three gallons of 
water by boiling. Drain off, and it is ready for use.. 
Put the eggs in carefully when fresh, so as not to crack 
the shells. Eggs pickled in this way will keep well, and 
are fully as good as fresh eggs for frying or boiling, but 
not quite so good for cooking purposes. Eggs may be 
kept in a lime solution in a butter firkin as well as a 
barrel. The keg may be kept in a cool place. It is 
best to put the eggs all in at a time, making a fresh so- 
lution of lime when fresh eggs are put in, so that the 
fine particles of the lime will coat the eggs and exclude 
the air. 

National Butter, Cheese and Egg Association' 's Metliod. 
Take one bushel best stone lime, eight quarts of salt, 
twenty-five ten-quart pails of water. Slake the lime 
with a portion of the water ; then add the balance of 
the water and the salt. Stir a few times and let it 
settle. Fill the cask or vat to a depth of eighteen inches, 
and put in a layer of eggs about a foot deep. Now pour 
over them some of the settlings that is a little milky in 
appearance. The object of this is to have the fine lime 
particles drawn into the pores of the shell to seal them. 
Continue this operation till the vessel is full. Put only 
fresh eggs in, if you would take good ones out. Eggs 
may also be preserved by the use of salicylic acid, which 
may be obtained of druggists. Dissolve a tablespoonful 
in a gallon of boiling water. Fill a stone jar or clean 
cask with eggs, and pour this solution over them after 
it has cooled. Keep the eggs covered with the solution, 
and cover the cask to keep out dust. If kept in a cool 
place, this preparation will be good for three months. 



POULTRY DICTIONARY AND CALENDAR. 345 

No metal of any kind should come in contact with the 
salicylic acid solution. Eggs preserved by either method 
must be used soon after being taken from the pickle. 

Loomis Recipe. — To thirty gallons of soft water, add 
five pounds salt and thirteen pounds lime ; stir it a little 
every hoar or two for one day. Now take one-half 
pound borax, one-half pound cream tartar, one-half 
pound saltpeter, one and one-half ounces alum, pulverize 
and mix thoroughly, dissolve in two gallons of boiling 
water, and add to the other lot. Let stand till settled, 
pour off all the clear solution and put the eggs in that. 
I have tried this method and know it to be good. 

Borax. — Eight ounces of borax, two ounces common 
salt, six ounces boracic acid, thoroughly pulverized, is 
an old recipe for preserving eggs that has been exten- 
sively advertised. The directions say : Put the above 
ingredients in a jar, stir thoroughly, and stand one week; 
then take one pound of the mixture and dissolve in five 
gallons of water ; have the solution boiling hot, and dip 
a shallow wire basket filled with eggs into the boiling- 
liquid so that the eggs will be covered, and out again as 
soon as possible. Pack the eggs thus treated in barrels 
or patent boxes, and turn packages upside down twice a 
week to prevent the yolk from settling to one side, and 
the eggs may be kept perfectly fresh for a reasonable 
length of time. The same liquid may be used over and 
over again until it is all absorbed. This recipe is for 
100 dozen of eggs. 

Lime Recipe. — My wife has just used in custards 
(which were very nice) the last of eggs put down sixteen 
months ago. I slaked one pound of lime slowly in one 
gallon of boiling water, and added a spoonful of salt. 
The eggs were put in a pork barrel (a butter firkin will 
not do), and the solution poured in until it covered 
them. They kept perfectly. — [J. S. R., Gloucester, 
Mass. 



340 PROFITS IX POULTRY. 

Lime and Brine. — It is a very easy matter to preserve 
eggs, by using a mixture of lime water and brine. I 
sell all my winter-laid eggs, except occasionally a thin- 
shelled one, and still have an abundance of hen fruit to 
use in the family whenever needed during the period of 
high prices. Equal quantities of salt and lime, and a 
small quantity of cream of tartar, are put into a water- 
tight barrel or vessel, and water is poured in until the 
mixture is of the right consistency. If the receptacle 
for the eggs and the preparation is not perfectly water- 
tight, it will be necessary to make a very thick, pasty 
mixture, but if water-tight a thin liquid will do. I use 
one-fourth pound of cream tartar to five pounds each 
of salt and lime. At the time of the lowest prices — in 
May — fresh eggs not more than three days old are put 
into the mixture. These eggs are used whenever prices 
are high until the next May. During ten years of expe- 
rience I have put down thousands of eggs, and never 
had any spoil that were right at first. — [W. "W. N., 
Litchfield County, Ct. 

Another Recipe.— Lime, two quarts ; salt, one quart ; 
cream of tartar, three ounces ; boiling water, eight gal- 
lons ; stir well and let cool. It is immaterial whether 
you remove sediment or not, after about two weeks. 
Drop the eggs, as gathered (only the fresh ones), in the 
pickle, and keep covered from the light. 

THE POULTRY YARD PROCESS. 

Take one pint of salt and one quart of fresh lime, and 
slake with hot water. When slaked, add sufficient 
water to make four gallons. When well settled, pour 
off the liquid gently into a stone jar. Then with a dish 
place the eggs in, tipping the dish after it fills with the 
liquid, so they will roll out without cracking the shell, 
for if the shell is cracked the egg will spoil. Put the 
eggs in whenever you have them fresh. Keep them 
covered, in a ccol place. 



POULTRY DICTIONARY AXD CALEXDAK. 



34; 



, QUALITIES OF THE BREEDS. 

The following tables are based on statements of many 
authorities and experts, bringing into compact form a 
large amount of descriptive data from various sources. 
The information is meant to represent the general aver- 
age of the breeds under good care, excluding statements 
which apply only to greatly improved strains or to fow's 
exceptionally well managed. Moreover, in a flock that 
has not been improved by selection, many of the indi- 
viduals will not come up to the normal average of the 
breed. Hence, the beginner cannot safely rely upon 
the yield and weight given, although the figures have 
often been exceeded. 

In regard to cost of raising, Jacobs declares : " Fifty 
cents will more than pay the cost of raising any kind of 
fowls, not excepting turkeys and geese." By general pur- 
pose breeds are meant those which are equally good for 
production of meat or eggs. The meat breeds are those 
which are usually kept rather for market poultry than 
for eggs. The egg breeds are non-sitters and great lay- 
ers, but less valuable for market poultry. 

Authorities consulted in compiling these tables include 
government Bulletins 41, 51 and 64, rejports of experi- 
ment stations of New York, Louisiana and Utah, pub- 
lished works of Wright, Beale, Jacobs, Boyer and Hun- 
ter, and direct inquiries of leading breeders of chickens, [ 
ducks, geese and turkeys. Whenever weights are men- j 
tioned in the Standard of Perfection, these are adopted 
in the tables. 

INCUBATION PERIODS. (DAYS.) 



Hen 

Turkey 

Duck 

fi cose 

Pigeon 

Pea lien 

Guinea hen.. 
Swan 



Shortest, 


Average. 


19 


21 


24 


2G 


28 


30 


27 


30 


1G 


18 


25 


28 


20 


23 


40 


42 



Longest. 



348 



PROFITS IK POULTRY. 






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INDEX. 



PAGE 

Annex to poultry house 60 

Bantam fowls 107 

Barrel hens' nest 37 

Blackhead 327 

Breed— best lor market 8 

For broilers 10 

For early roasters 9 

For late roasters 9 

Breeding and cross breeding... .247 

Breeds — characteristics 351 

Facts about 35J 

Multiplication of 249 

Popular 121 

Breeds of Fowls: 

American 16S 

American Dominiques 172 

American Javas 177 

Asiatic 123 

Black Cochin 131 

Black Java (cut) 219 

Black-red Game 141 

Black Spanish 151 

Brown Leghorns 160 

Buff Cochins 131 

Crevecoeur 165 

Dark Brahmas ,.127 

Duck-wing Game 140 

European 133 

French 161 

Games 133 

Hamburgs 145 

Houdan 161 

Langshans 131 

Light Brahmas 123 

Partridge Cochins 128 

Plymouth Rocks 168 

Polish 149 

Silver-gray Dorkings .136 

AVhite Cochins 131 

White-crested White Polish. !l50 

White Dorkings 137 

White Leghorns ..'...'. 156 

White Wonders (cut) 2G7 

Wyandottes — 967 

Breeds, qualities of..'.." 349 

Brooders— care of . '. o'fil 

For chicks 62 75 

Brooder house " 75 

£™°£, in § p e n for' hens .".7.7.7.".' 52 



Bumble-foot 






Calendar of poultry work'.'. .339-342 
Capon izm£__ how done 93 

r-o2f > ents 95.96 

n«!.~ I chinks 268-269 

Care ot ducks 270 

Census f 1890 ....".'.] 91 



PAGE 

Charcoal and stimulants 106 

Chicken coop— complete 54 

Box 57 

Barrel L8 

Chicks— Brooders lor early.... 02 

Care of 64 

Raising early 60 

Cholera— 181,326 

Mixture 333 

Cleanliness 282 

Cock, weight of 3^,0 

Cold latitudes, wintering fowls. 113 
Color of skin not alfected by 

feed 8 

Common sense 101 

Constitution — compared ,. . ..; 51 

Of various breeds 351 

Coops for turkeys. . ..... .297,299,300 

Crates, folding 43 

Crook for catching fowls 117 

Crops raised for poultry 109 

Cross breeding— 217 

Advantage of . . „ 130 

Guide to 256 

Systematic 253 

Crosses— for eggs 259 

Various 258-259 

Defects of breeds 351 

Dictionary, poultry ,335 

Disease, defence against .187 

Diseases and pests 178,320 

Blackhead of turkeys 327 

Bumble-foot 186 

Chicken-pox 181 

Cholera, the.. 181,326 

Cramp 320 

Diarrhoea 323 

Distemper 178 

Egg-bound 136 

Egg-eating. 1P4 

Feather-eating 185,321 

Feathers, loss of 186 

Gapes, the 185,322 

Lice 329 

Mites 321 

Nest bucr ?31 

Pip, the 185 

Roup, the 178 3' 7 

Shabby Ipgs .183,3°! 

Tapeworms 324 

Doug] as m i xtnre 333 

Drinking fountain 281 

Duck — house ,220 

Mothers ? 1 9 

Raisin*? 218.2 5 

Ducks— American Wood .245 



(350) 



INDEX. 



351 



PAGE 
Ducks— Continued. 

As layers 220,226 

Aylesbury 22, 

Need little water 223 

Pekin 226 

Rouen 230 

Time of incubation 349 

Whistling 242 

Egg— crate 90 

Uolind loo 

Ladle •••• 89 

Receipts and prices 92 

Eggs— analysis of 287 

Caudiing* 48 

Color of 351 

Eating 184 

Feeding for 273 

For market 86 

Import and export of 91 

In Great Britain and in the 

United States 91 

Liming 86-89 

Market for 91 

Of various breeds 350 

Packing for winter 89,342 

Packing in barrels 87 

Per pound 350 

Record of 287 

Selection for 252 

To secure in winter 115 

Vat lor pickling 90 

Egg— testing 47 

Yield per year 350 

Excelsior meal bread 266 

Exercise 277 

Exports and imports of eggs 92 

Fattening ration 11 

Feather— bone 84 

Eating 185.323 

Feathers— save the 84 

Loss of 185 

Types of 334 

Feeding— Buffinton's rule for . . .275 

Chicks 266 

Economv in 280 

Felch's rule for ....264 

For eggs 2,3 

For erro wth 261 

Pen for chicks 59 

Feed trough— 280 

Cleanly.. 41 

Food, amount of 282 

Foods— analyses of 286 

Various.... 284 

Foreign egg trade 92 

Fowls— egg bound 186 

Egg-eating 1*4 

Feather-eating 185 

Green food for 105 

Losing feit hers 186 

Management and food 10 

Selecting and selling 115 

White-skinned preferred in 

Philadelphia, etc 8 

Yellow-Skinned preferred in 

New England 8 

3apes 1>5.322 



PAGE 

Game fowls at fairs 144 

Geese — Embden -15 

Plucking 216 

Sebastopol 242 

Time of incubation 34J 

Toulouse origin 21a 

Varieties of 212 

Goose-raising 210 

Green food 105 

Healthy fowls 278 

Hen, standard weight of 350 

Hints, useful -79 

Incubation— artificial 65 

Natural 46 

Periods.... 349 

Incubators, direction for run- 
ning 72 

Hot water 68 

How to make 69 

Saw-dust packing 71 

Self-regulators 68 

Success and failure with 66 

Thermometer for 74 

Iudian meal dough 11 

Japanese Bantams 238 

Keeping, cost of 350 

Keeping eggs 343 

Borax method 342 

Lime and brine recipe 346 

Lime recipe 345 

Loomis's recipe for keeping 

eggs 345 

Waterglass 343 

Large birds, how to raise 119 

Laying age, time of 350 

Lice on hens 189,329 

Prevention of 117.326 

Louse eggs on feathers 189 

Males, importance of pure 122 

Market for poultry and eggs... 91 

Marketing poultry 80,270 

Market law, New York 82 

Mating— 248 

Black and white breeds 248 

Buff Cochins 251 

Dark Brahmas 250 

Partridge Cochins 251 

Plymouth Rocks 249 

Wyandottes 249 

Maturity, time of 350 

Mistakes, common 2*2 

Mites 3-29 

Nest box — lock 39 

Secure ^0 

With roller in front .40 

Nest bo x es — V^J 

Pinned together 36 

Sliding, through partition — 34 

Nest— of woven wire 38 

Bug 330 

For egg-eating hens 3^ 

In a barrel 3. 

Tidv « 

New York dressed poultry law. P2 

Packing and shipping 270 

Parrish food 333 

Parasites 189 



352 



lisTDEX. 



PAGE 

Pasturing fowls 118 

Pea-fowl — 235 

Trained to stay at home 237 

Perches, handy 31 

Poultry— anatomy 248 

Conveniences 31 

Dressing and stuffing 81 

Dressing, N. E. melliod 83 

Ornamental 235 

Raising 7 

Special food crop 109 

When to market 80 

Poultry houses — 13 

Building material for 25 

C. H. Colburn's \ 21 

Half tinder ground 25 

Portable .. . 27 

Very cheap 13 

Very complete 21 

Warm 14 

Poultry keeping— as a business.. 98 

Money made by 99 

Poultry management, hints 101 

Poultryman's crook 117 

Poultry yard, common sense in. 101 

Raising-, cost of 349 

Ration— for fattening: 11 

Salt in X 104 

^Record of eggs..' 287 

'Rheumatism 320 

Roosts, low.. 32 

Poup 178,317 

Rules of I. K. Feleh 247 

Rap in the ration 104 

Samuels on market breeds 8 

Scabby legs 183,321 

Selection for eggs 252 

Setting:, time of 349 

Shipping— 270 

Crates, folding 43 

Sitting box, secure 50 

Sitting hens, care of 49 



PAGE 

Skin, color of 351 

Spring and summer care 279 

Statistics of poultry trade 91-92 

Stimulants, use of 106 

Hi one lor poultry house 33 

Tape vv ot ins 324 

Terms, explanation of 335-338 

Theory and practice ...247 

Turkey— blackhead ..."327 

Black (cut) 302 

Breeding stock 292 

£ ro i lze 1 311,313 

Buff 294 

Chicks 295 

Coop... 299 

Culture, essay on 306 

Incubation 293 

Nests 203 

Raising 193 

Roosts 195 

Turkeys— breed and care 291 

Bronze 194 

Care of 300-303 

Early broods 204 

Fattening 196 

Feeding the chicks 206 

Hints about 203 

In Rhode Island 310-315 

Loss of weight in dressing 208 

Marking .303-306 

On the farm 288 

Petting the hens 205 

Time of incubation 349 

Wild, habits of 198 

Water fountain — 42,281 

Pneumatic 41 

Waterfowls, ornamental 241 

Weight of fowls at three mos...350 
Weight of fowls at twelve mos..350 
Wintering fowls in cold lat- 
itudes 113 



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Giving full instructions from starting the plants to harvesting and 
storing the crop. "With a chapter on the Chinese Yam. By James 
Fitz, Keswich, Va., author of "Southern Apple and Peach Culture." 
Cloth, 12mo. .60 

Heinrich's Window Flower Garden. 

The author is a practical florist, and this enterprising volume em- 
bodies his personal experiences in "Window Gardening during a 
long period. New and enlarged edition. By Julius J. Heinrich. 
Fully illustrated. Cloth. 12mo. .76 



Greenhouse Construction. 

By Prof. L. R. Taft. A complete treatise on Greenhouse structures 
and arrangements of the various forms and styles of Plant Houses 
for professional florists as well as amateurs. All the best and most 
approved structures are so fully and clearly described that anyone 
who desires to build a Greenhouse will have no difficulty in deter- 
mining the kind best suited to his purpose. The modern and most 
successful methods of heating and ventilating are fully treated 
upon. Special chapters are devoted to houses used for the growing 
of one kind of plants exclusively. The construction of hotbeds 
and frames receives appropriate attention. Over one hundred ex 
cellent illustrations, specially engraved for this work, make every 
point clear to the reader and add considerably to the artistic ap- 
pearance of the book. Cloth, 12mo. 1.5* 

Bulbs and Tuberous-Rooted Plants. 

By C. L. Allen. A complete treatise on the History, Description, 
Methods of Propagation and full Directions for the successful cul- 
ture of Bulbs in the garden, Dwelling and Greenhouse. As gener- 
ally treated, bulbs are an expensive luxury, while, when properly 
managed, they afford the greatest amount of pleasure at the least 
cost. The author of this book has for many years made bulb grow- 
ing a specialty, and is a recognized authority on their cultivation 
and management. The illustrations which embellish this work 
have been drawn from nature, and have been engraved especially 
for this book. The cultural directions are plainly stated, practical 
and to the point. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00 

Henderson's Practical Floriculture. 

By Peter Henderson. A guide to the successful propagation and 
cultivation of florists' plants. The work is not one for florists and 
gardeners only, but the amateur's wants are constantly kept in 
mind, and we have a very complete treatise on the cultivation of 
flowers under glass, or in the open air, suited to those who grow 
flowers for pleasure as well as those who make them a matter of 
trade. Beautifully illustrated. New and enlarged edition. Cloth, 
12mo. 1.50 

Long's Ornamental Gardening for Americans. 

A Treatise on Beautifying Homes, Rural Districts and Cemeteries. 
A plain and practical work at a moderate price, with numerous 
illustrations and instructions so plain that they may be readily 
followed. By Elias A. Long, Landscapr Architect. Illustrated, 
Cloth, 12mo. 2.00 



The Propagation of Plants. 



By Andrew S- Fuller. Illustrated with numerous engravings. An 
eminently practical and useful work. Describing the process of 
hybridizing and crossing species and varieties, and also the many 
different modes by which cultivated plants may be propagated and 
'•Multiplied. Cloth, 12mo. 1,50 



STANDARD BOOKS. 

Parsons on the Rose. 

By Samuel B. Parsons. A treatise on the propagation, culture and 
history of the rose. New and revised edition. In his work upon 
the rose, Mr. Parsons has gathered up the curious legends concern- 
ing the flower, and gives us an idea of the esteem in which it was 
held in former times. A simple garden classification has been 
adopted, and the leading varieties under each class enumerated 
and briefly described. The chapters on multiplication, cultivation 
and training are very full, and the work is altogether one of the 
most complete before the public. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00 

Henderson's Handbook of Plants, 

This new edition comprises about fifty per cent, more genera than 
the former one, and embraces the botanical name, derivation, 
natural order, etc., together with a short history of the different 
genera, concise instructions for their propagation and culture, and 
all the leading local or common English names, together with a 
comprehensive glossary of Botanical and Technical terms. Plain 
instructions are also given for the cultivation of the principal veg- 
etables, fruits and flowers. Cloth, large 8vo. 4.00 

Barry's Fruit Garden. 

By P. Barry. A standard work on Fruit and Fruit Trees ; the author 
having had over thirty years' practical experience at the head of 
one of the largest nurseries in this country. New edition revised 
up to date. Invaluable to all fruit growers. Illustrated. Cloth, 
12mo. 2.00 

Fulton's Peach Culture. 

This is the only practical guide to Peach Culture on the Delaware 
Peninsula, and is the best work upon the subject of peach growing 
for those who would be siiccessful in that culture in any part of 
the country. It has been thoroughly revised and .a large portion of 
it rewitten, by Hon. J. Alexander Fulton, the author, bringing it 
down to date, Cloth, 12mo. 1.50 

Strawberry Culturist. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. Containing the History, Sexuality, Field and 
Garden Culture of Strawberries, forcing or pot culture, how to 
grow from seed, hybridizing, and all information necessary to en- 
able everybody to raise their own strawberries, together with a 
description of new varieties and a list of the best of the old sorts. 
Fully illustrated. Flexible cloth, 12mo. .25 

Fuller's Small Fruit Culturist. 

By Andrew S. Fuller. Rewritten, enlarged, and brought fully tip to 
the present time. The book covers the whole ground of propagating 
Small Fruits, their culture, varieties, packing for market, etc. It is 
very finely and thoroughly illustrated, and makes an admirable 
companion to "The Grape Culturist," by the same well known 
author. mi 



STANDAED BOOKS, 

Poller's Grape Culturist. 

By A. S. Fuller. This is one of the very best or works on the Cul- 
ture of the Hardy Grapes, with full directions for all departments 
of propagation, culture, etc., with 150 excellent engravings, illus- 
trating planting, training, grafting, etc. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50 

Quinn's Pear Culture for Profit. 

Teaching How to Raise Pears intelligently, and with the best re- 
sults, how to find out the character of the soil, the best methods of 
preparing it, the best varieties to select under existing conditions, 
the best modes of planting, pruning, fertilizing, grafting, and utiliz- 
ing the ground before the trees come into bearing, and finally of 
gathering and packing for market. Illustrated. By P. T. Quinn, 
practical horticulturist. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00 

Husmann's American Grape Growing and Wine-Making:. 

By George Husmann of Talcoa vineyards, Napa, California. New 
and enlarged edition. With contributions from well know grape- 
growers, giving a wide range of experience. The author of this 
book is a recognized authority on the subject. Cloth, 12mo. 1.5C 

White's Cranberry Culture. 

Contents: — Natural History. — History of Cultivation. — Choice of 
Location.— Preparing the Ground. — Planting the Vines. — Manage- 
ment of Meadows. — Flooding. — Enemies and Difficulties Overcome. 
—Picking. — Keeping. — Profit and Loss. — Letters from Practical 
Growers. — Insects Injurious to the Cranberry. By Joseph J. White, 
a practical grower. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. New and revised 
edition. 1.25 

Fuller's Practical Forestey. 

A Treatise on the Propagation, Planting and Cultivation, with a 
description and the botanical and proper names of all the indigen- 
ous trees of the United States, both Evergreen and Deciduous, with 
Notes on a large number of the most valuable Exotic Species. By 
Andrew S. Fuller, author of "Grape Culturist," "Small Fruit Cul- 
turist," etc. 1.50 

Stewart's Irrigation for the Farm, Garden and Orchard. 

This work is offered to those American Farmers and other cultiva- 
tors of the soil who, from painful experience, can readily appre- 
ciate the losses which result from the scarcity of water at critical 
periods. By Henry Stewart. Fully illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50 

Quinn's Money in the Garden. 

By P. T. Quinn. The author gives in a plain, practical style, in- 
structions on three distinct, although closely connected branches 
of gardening — the kitchen garden, market garden, and field culture, 
from successful practical experience for a term of years. Illustra- 
ted. Cloth, 12mo. ._ . 1.60 



STANDARD BOOKS. 

Roe's Play and Profit in My Garden. 

By E. P. Roe. The author takes us to his garden on the rocky hiU- 
sides in the vicinity of West Point, and shows us how out of it, 
after four years' experience, he evoked a profit of $1,000, and this 
while carrying on pastoral and literary labor. It is very rarely 
that so much literary taste and skill are mated to so much agri- 
cultural experience and good sense. Cloth, 12mo. 1.5G 

The New Onion Culture. 

By T. Greiner. This new work is written by one of our most sue- ' 
cessful agriculturists, and is full of new, original, and highly valu- 
able matter of material interest to every one who raises onions in 
the family garden, or by the acre for market. By the process here 
described a crop of 2000 bushels per acre can be as easily raised as 
500 or 600 bushels in the old way. Paper, *2mo. .50 

The Dairyman's Manual. 

By Henry Stewart, author of "The Shepherd's Manual," "Irriga- 
tion," etc. A useful and practical work, by a writer who is well 
known as thoroughly familiar with the subject of which he writes. 
Cloth, 12mo. 2.00 

Allen's American Cattle. 

Their History, Breeding and Management. By Lewis F. Allen. 
This book will be considered indispensable by every breeder of 
live stock. The large experience of the author in improving the 
character of American herds adds to the weight of his observations 
and has enabled him to produce a work which will at once make 
good his claims as a standard authority on the subject. New and 
revised edition. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 2.50 

Profits in Poultry. 

Useful and ornamental Breeds and their Profitable Management. 
This excellent work contains the combined experience of a num- 
ber of practical men in all departments of poultry raising. It is 
profusely illustrated and forms a unique and important addition 
to our poultry literature. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00 

The American Standard of Perfection. 

The recognized standard work on Poultry in this country, adopted 
by the American Poultry Association. It contains a complete de- 
scription of all the recognized varieties of fowls, including turkeys, 
ducks and geese ; gives instructions to judges ; glossary of technical 
terms and nomenclature. It contains 244 pages, handsomely 
bound in cloth, embellished with title in gold on front cover. $1.00 

Stoddard's An Egg Farm, 

By H. H. Stoddard. The management of poultry in large numbers, 
being a series of articles written for the AMERICAN" AGRICULTUR- 
IST. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. .50 



STANDARD BOOKS. 



Stewart's Shepherd's Manual 



A Valuable Practical Treatise on the Sheep for American farmer* 
and sheep growers. It is so plain that a farmer or a farmer's son 
who has never kept a sheep, may learn from its pages how to 
manage a flock successfully, and yet so complete that even the ex- 
perienced shepherd may gather many suggestions from it. The 
results of personal experience of some years with the characters 
s>f the various modern breeds of sheep, and the sheep raising capa- 
bilities of many portions of our extensive territory and that of 
Canada — and the careful study of the diseases to which our sheep 
are chiefly subject, with those by which they may eventually be 
afflicted through unforseen accidents — as well as the methods of 
management called for under our circumstances, are carefully 
described. By Henry Stewart. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50 

Wright's Practical Poultry-Keeper. 

By L. Wright. A complete and standard guide to the management 
of poultry, for domestic use, the markets or exhibition. It suits at 
once the plain poulterer, who must make the business pay, and the 
chicken fancier whose taste is for gay plumage and strange, bright 
birds. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. $2.00 

Harris on the Pig. 

New Edition. Revised and enlarged by the author. The points of 
the various English and American breeds are thoroughly discussed, 
and the great advantage of using thoroughbred males clearly 
shown. The work is equally valuable to the farmer who keeps but 
few pigs, and to the breeder on an extensive scale. By Joseph 
Harris. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50 

The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

A guide to the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Domestio 
Animals. This is one of the best works on this subject, and is es- 
pecially designed to supply the need of the busy American Farm- 
er, who can rarely avail himself of the advice of a Scientific Veter- 
inarian. It is brought up to date and treats of the Prevention of 
Disease as well as of the Remedies. By Prof. Jas. Law, Cloth. 
Crown, 8vo. 3.00 

Dadd's American Cattle Doctor. 

By George H. Dadd, M. D., Veterinary Practitioner. To help every 
man to be his own cattle-doctor; giving the necessary information 
for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, 
sheep and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and val- 
uable information on farm and dairy management. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50 

Cattle Breeding. 

By Win. Warfield. This work is by common consent the most 
valuable and pre-eminently practical treatise on cattle-breeding 
ever published in America, being the actual experience and ob- 
servance of a practical man. Cloth, 12mo. 2-Qfi 



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